The 9th Race
by Quinhwyvar
Summary: Were the demons really the last magical race? I think not. The fairies have one last deadly secret to reveal, do you want to know it? If so, click the button or else you'll wonder for eternity. Rated T for violence
1. Quote

The 9th Race

"_And what sorta name is 'Hero'? Are you a hero or something?"_

_Hero laughed out load, not being able to hold it any longer. "No, no, no, I'm not a hero and I hope I never am. I never want to be one really. Hero stands for Herodes, it's easier to remember."_

_Story cocked her head to one side. "Why don't you want to be a hero? Doesn't everybody want to be one?"_

-Chapter 13, Stories


	2. Awakening

**Awakening**

Free at last. He'd been stuck in that horrid slimy cave for long enough. With no source of light or food, he had finally eaten rocks that were around him to live. Thank goodness for a "rock" hard stomach.

Now it was all crystal blue skies and seeping green grass for miles around. At first it was so beautiful that it almost brought tears to his eyes. Almost, he was not one to show too much emotion in front of anyone. But this was special.

At last he was sailing among the clouds for the first time in 300 years. The glorious sun warmed his back, the wind in his ears, and the scents of the world playing around his nose. Yes, this is what he had been yearning for.

The creature looked lovingly down at the world that was slowly passing beneath him. The mountains were as regal as ever, their peaks were capped with white crowns of magnificence and bare rock were their capes.

Casually, he swooped down until with a brush of his hand he could touch the green leaves. This was what it was like, being with nature, flying with her in the sky, dancing with her forest and swimming in the ocean. The smell of life made him smile.

With a simple flap of his wings he wheeled high above the plant life, making a ripple among them, almost whispering to them that he was back. With two more flaps he cleared the mountain peaks and slid into another valley. This one had a large lake in it, the water sparkling like a million diamonds, the sun lighting it up like a star.

Slowly he swooped over it, carefully landing on the other side. The soft warm sand soothed his sore feet. The sun's rays affectionately laid down on his back.

With a smile, the magical creature stretched out his wings, allowing them to soak up the heat. The sand made a soft _"shush"_ sound as he settled down on the bank of the river. He was happy to be on top of the world again. Minutes later he was asleep, the world of the past taking over his dreams.

***

Later that day whispers started to come from the bushes and trees. The Mud Men were back. Slowly, groggily the creature awoke at the first word. Vaguely he wondered how far the humans had advanced with technology. It _had_ been three hundred years. He cracked an eye open. There they were, on the other side of the bank dressed in green as pale as a ghost. Had they ever seen one of his kind before?

The Mud Men were standing pointing sticks at him. What were they up to? They should know that sticks are useless. Were they so stupid that they had reverted to spears and flint? He opened eyes all the way and a whisper went though the crowd. One or two of them fainted right there and then.

If he had eyebrows, one would be up right now. He sighed and waited. It was their move, like in chess. He was good at chess. He beat everyone he played, including the "finest" player in the whole world. Really. That game was over in ten minutes.

The men held their ground. They stood there like idiots pointing sticks at him. This was really silly. He had other places to go and be and if these men just wanted to gawk, at him then they could wait. He yawned and stretched like a cat, the sand falling from his body. Carefully he drew in his wings and looked back at the Mud Men. He twitched his tail in annoyance. Some things never change.

At that moment he remembered that the Mud Men had made things called: "guns" and he remembered what they did. He smiled, his armor could hold up to their gunpowder. He snorted as he breathed in some sand. The only way that bullets could pierce his armor was if they were thin and slender.

Of course bullets were too big, thank goodness. He wondered it would be good to give them a scare for the fun of it, to remind them. Slowly he turned to face the humans; the sand was squishy under his feet. The dying sun behind him.

He took a deep breath as his diaphragm expanded. Then his roar ripped though the forest. Chilling anyone's blood, it sounded of danger and a primitive voice in the back of the human's head sounded a warning. The creature was sure it would scare them, he was good at that. The Mud Men backed up a bit before one shouted something and another shot something at him. It hit him at the shoulder.

That hurt. More than a bullet did. He glanced at his shoulder. A tiny little dart was there. This was now serious. No more playing around, he didn't want to kill them but he needed to get away. Quickly.

He growled and jumped into the air, but something was wrong. Instead of soaring up, the trees scrapped his belly and the human shouted something else. Suddenly the sky was filled with the little darts. A dozen more pierced though his armor.

The tree fell away. He was almost out of their range. He looked down to see that the humans were now watching. The creature pumped his wings as he desperately flew higher and higher, the lake falling far below him. The Mud Men were now only specks on the sand.

Suddenly the world started to slow. His wings moved sluggishly. The world started to twirl. Spinning and spinning…spinning…spinning…spinn-

He plummeted from the sky. Its wings went this way and that, his graceful neck curved unnaturally. 500 feet was a long way to fall. He twisted and turned as the wind played with him. The lake rose to meet him. Nature's hands gathered around him with a deadly embrace as the splash formed. The water swelled as took in his form. There was a sickening crack and all was still.

The men stood still. In awe of what had just happened. Slowly they crept to the water's edge and peered over the water. All was still. The sun continued its dying descent into the mountains. The water lapped at the sand. The trees swished as the wind blew though them.

A pair of dry lips cracked: "We-we killed it." Emotions filled in the voice, it was the voice of guilt.

They stood for a minute. In shock. Their breath filled the air.

There was a spark. A single red spark danced over the water. It skipped over the surface and then promptly sank. Two more danced to the spot where the first had gone. Then three went, four, five, six until the lake was red with the sparks. Then there were no more. The water cleared.

Another minute passed.

A bubble popped to the surface. Then another and another. A head erupted from the water. The creature gasped and struggled from breath. His clawed hands paddled frantically at the water. He sputtered but suddenly went back under. The water cleared again.

He appeared closer to shore, coughed and retched up water. Then he dragged himself to shore. His wings dragged long the bottom. He didn't even look at the humans, but focused the sand. The white creature fell forward, crashed in, luckily, in shallow water. A long moan came from his mouth and the blue eyes closed on the world.

The dragon fell unconscious.

He had been trapped in a cave for three hundred years and was suddenly free, but not for long, only for a moment. The 9th species of fairies would never be the same.

The species of the world would never be the same.

**A/N: Yes! The first chapter is up. A large bit of it is already written, I'm on chapter 12, about 12,000 words or 30 pages right now. :D Just a head's up it's going to be about 30 chapters if everything goes well with the outline. Artemis and Holly are in it along with lots of ocs, none of them Mary Sues! **

**Who knew it was a dragon before you read that last part?**

**Read & Review & Enjoy!**

**Brightfrost**

**PS The next post will be next Saturday and called **_**Planning**_** but if I get reviews I might change my mind…. ^.^**

**The plot and dragon is MINE but Artemis and Holly are not, but the wonderful Eoin Colfer's**


	3. Planning

_Planning_

Artemis yawned. It didn't happen often, but today it did. The seminar was on cellular transport and half of the information given was wrong, though the people around him were soaking it all in. He made a note to tell the teacher to review his lecture information. Really. He called himself a "scientist"?

Artemis shifted in his seat, moving the papers in his lap. There was no reason to stay if he had already discovered the correct information five years ago. Butler looked down at him and understood his slight signs of boredom.

He leaned closer and whispered: "Do you want to go?"

Artemis scowled and whispered back: "If we left now, we would disappoint Dr. James and make this seminar a failure. Hence ruining his career as scientist, and topple all the cellular transport's progress. Then they would need to hire someone else and to start from scratch. This would be a _bad_ thing, Butler."

Butler raised an eyebrow and sighed: "It's a yes or no question Artemis."

He knew him all too well. "Yes, let's."

They quickly pushed back their chairs and left the building. From the stage Dr. James looked longing at them. He didn't know how much trouble he was in for.

Fowl's phone rang the second he stepped out the building. The ring was Beethoven's 5th. Arty looked at the cell questioning as they waited for the car to be driven up. He shrugged and answered.

"Hello?"

A familiar voice answered on the other end: "Hey, Arty its Holly."

A ball of guilt wound itself up in his stomach. He still felt bad about lying to her.

"What's the fairies' problem now, Holly?" Butler made his check of the car to ensure there were no surprises were hidden that would blow them into smithereens. There was always a 15% chance of that. The hulking human opened the car door nodding.

His charge quickly entered the black car and settled in.

"Can't I call just to talk?" Holly replied on the other end. There was a slight bit of amusement and apprehension mixed together in her voice.

"If you were calling just to talk you'd come in person or called on our special phone. Since you don't know _this_ number, only Foaly could have given it to you which means that it's business." He replied smugly. Somethings never change.

"I could've just asked Foaly for the number saying that it was personal."

"And go though all his teasing? I would think not." He pulled his seatbelt across. He took a laptop from the secret compartment in front of him and opened an internet browser.

A sigh made its way across the line. "Fine, fine. I admit defeat." There was amusement in the fairy's voice.

"Good, good. Now how may I be of service?" He rested back, resting his fingers on the keyboard as his mail finished loading. A link was there, with very interesting information. His eyes narrowed as he read the words below it.

He completely missed what Holly said in reply, for the phone had fallen away from his ear. It bounced on the seat next to him and buzzed. He clicked the link. _This is impossible._ He thought.

Quickly he opened another browser window and went to the LEP's site. It demanded a username and password. His fingers whizzed as he typed in Foaly's username and password. Once in, he cross-reference the word he had just seen with the all of the data in LEP. One link came up. He clicked.

This all happened in a matter of five seconds, which left Holly talking to air. She then realize that he wasn't there. Artemis Fowl the Second groped for the phone as he read the file.

When the handset was back in his ear he stated: "Sorry, I dropped the phone." It was the truth.

"You dropped the phone? That never happens. What are you doing?" Holly replied with suspicion.

"Reading. Now what were you saying?" He said calmly.

"One of our men as been captured."

"_Really_? I thought you would have been more careful than that Holly." The Mud man replied.

The elf sounded offended, "It wasn't our fault. We just need to clean up the mess."

"Oh? Then why do you need my help? Your method is simple, trap, wipe and leave. Is that what you needed me to tell you?"

"No. That's not what I was talking about and you know it." She's annoyed now, Artemis thought.

"It's more complicated than that is it?" He knew what they were talking about, but it was fun to play with Holly. They went over a bump in the road as the countryside whizzed away.

"Yes, it is." She replied.

"If it wasn't I wouldn't be talking with you right now and probably you wouldn't know about it until later. Now tell me, is your 'man' in anyway humanoid?"

There was a second of silence. "If you're behind this then I am going to fly up there and I won't be alone." She replied hostility.

"If I was behind this then I wouldn't be talking to you right now. I am not behind this and yes you have my help."

"What do you know about dragons Fowl?" Holly said. He could see her smiling at her microphone stationed on the table as Foaly controlled the connection by a computer. He had hacked into the system and was watching a live feed from OPS.

"A lot now since I hacked into LEP and started reading." He stated.

Foaly jumped to the nearest computer, "How?!?!" Was his strangled reply.

"I logged in as you. Really Foaly, 'CaRrOts4LiFe' not very good password. Holly's password is much better, since it happens to be my name." He said cooly as the elf's face turned red.

"Okay Artemis, very clever. Ha. Ha. We're all laughing."-Foaly said and then got serious-"We have a plan and since you're the only Mud Man that knows about The People its best that you do it. Here comes the file. "

A beep came from Artemis' computer. He opened the email and read.

"That's terrible. A five year old can do better." He said in dismay.

Holly rolled her brown and blue eyes, "What do you suggested we do _All and Mighty_ Artemis?" with sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"This," Artemis said and leaning back in the padded seat told them a plan. After a minute his proposed plan went straight into action.

**Second Chapters up! YAY! Boy that week went fast. **

**Just FYI it's going to be more Holly and Artemis **_**later. **_**Dragons are more important ^-^**

**Next week's chapter is called ****'The Defiance'**

**R&R&E!**

**BF**

**PS: Arty and Holly aren't mine....**


	4. The Defiance

_The Defiance_

Dr. Swann Unwin walked down the hall with defiance. Her heels making sharp, quick clip clop sounds on the white tile. Her dark brown hair was done up in a thrown together bun, her blue grey eyes were just as sharp as her heels, seemingly cutting though anyone. Everyone got out of her way, she didn't go around, a straight line was faster than a curved one.

She pulled on a white coat and quickly tied it around her tight jeans and shirt. She turned another corner and swiped her pass in the electronic lock. An electronic voice said: _"Welcome Doctor Uwin"_ and the door slid open and she stalked though. Six hours ago she was tanning in California on vacation before they had dragged her back.

"This better be real or I will fire you right here and now Connop." She said sharply as she whipped on a pair of sleek glasses.

A started young man, maybe 25 years old looked up from his papers. His black hair was spiked and he quickly hurried to match the pace of the woman. She didn't even stop to look at him.

"Oh, we got it Dr. Unwin, I can assure you that. Here are the basics." He attempted to hand her the clipboard which was overflowing with papers.

For the first time Swann glared at him and snapped: "Do you think that I want to see _papers_ right now? Do you think that I flew in all the way from California to see papers? No, those can wait. Really Connop." Her eyes were as cold as ice, almost freezing the poor Connop in place. She sent the clipboard flying, sending papers everywhere.

She continued down the hall as Connop flew to his knees to pick up the papers. She would want them soon.

There was a steady clip clopping as she approached another door which was guarded by four burly men displaying police officer badges. For the first time she stopped, Unwin threw back her head with a commanding gesture and showed them her pass.

They looked at her and then the picture. One grunted and let her though, her hand was scanned and the metal door opened. She sighed and walked though the door into an elevator. Another scientist was waiting for her. Just as the door closed and, she could see Connop running with the papers in his hands. He was shouting: "Wait! Stop the elevator!" and then the doors closed.

"What do we have?" She said calmly, clipping her I.D. to her jacket.

The man looked though the papers in his hand, in a few short sentences he explained that they had a warm blooded creature, male with four legs and two wings, covered with white scales and smooth horns. It looked like a traditional a dragon.

The brown haired doctor processed this. She shot back: "Any sign of intelligence?"

"No, we haven't given it the chance. We though it best to wait 'til you came back. Until then we have been just been doing the basics."

"Good." She said shortly and took the papers from his hands, scanning them quickly. Her eyebrows narrowed: "Where are the real basics?"

"Connop was supposed to give them to you." She blew a hair out of her rolling eyes.

There was a beep and the doors slid open into the viewing booth. Twenty scientists looked up from their work, and nodded welcoming Swann. She just waved a hand and they all went back to work.

The booth was filled with metal, glass and wires. The lower half of it was computer screens, electronic showed a line that was slowly rising and falling and another showed figures and pictures. Some were camera screens that showed the room beyond, others were computers that were waiting to be used.

The top of the booth was glass, plexiglas and in the room beyond was the dragon. His chest rose and fell slowly as the men worked around him. Swann smiled, they had it. A true dragon, it wasn't false. As soon as the smile was there it was gone.

Two scientists stood and talked gabber endlessly in her ears. It was important information but it could be simplified: They didn't know what it was, the DNA showed something that they had never seen on planet Earth, it was found in the US and they weren't sure what to do next.

It was simple what they were going to do next: "Clear out the men. I want to go in there."

They said it was "too dangerous" but nobody that fought with Dr. Swann Unwin and won. Ever. It was a proven fact.

***Ten Minutes Later***

Another door slid open and Swann walked into the white walled room, the floor was black to make the creature stand out. Her high heels clicked on the concrete as she walked across the space.

The creature was roughly twenty feet long, from nose tip to tail tip. Wing span was 40-50 feet. The pure white scales were about the size of Dr. Unwin's fist and fitted together like armor. The feet were different, they were like cat paws in a way. They had a round shape and overall the same look. But as she looked closer she saw that instead of fur there were scales.

She knelt and picked up a foot. It was light, amazingly so. As she felt around it, the bone structure was the same but for the thumb on the inside of foot. She pressed down to see if they were truly alike. A white sharp claw slid out from the finger. It was razor sharp.

There were fishlike fins going down its neck and back. They stood about a half a foot tall and they were also white. At the end of each one was a spike, a nasty surprise for anyone who jumped on him and they were probably useful for steering.

She moved onto the wings. They were similar to bat wings. There was a membrane between the fingers and at the end was another claw. She ran her hand along it as her assistants held the wing out. It was soft and there was a soft down feel to it. She wondered how strong it was. It must be very sturdy to hold this much weight.

She observed the finely distinguished muscles along the arm. She had people who claimed to have seen it fly. If this was true it must get up in the air from pure grunt effort.

"Do we have any x-rays on this thing?" She asked.

One of the scientists nodded, "They're in the booth. We have a full body, one on its feet, and several on the junction between the shoulder and the wing. We didn't risk the head or anything else because we don't know his reactions to the radiation. "

"Good." She said and knelt by the head.

His head was large, the smooth horns were large as well. They looked like ivory but it was difficult to tell. The scales were smaller here maybe the size of a bottle cap. She gently pulled back his eyelid. A blue orb rolled back. She pulled back his lip as well, pink gums and sharp white teeth glinted at her.

He looked healthy for what she knew about animals. His heart beat was steady and calm, his breathing was unaltered, he appeared unharmed and wasn't dehydrated. They had taken good care of him.

"Alright, let's get out of here and batten down the hatches." The women said standing up.

"Why?" asked one of the duller of the assistants. The others shook their head.

"Why? Why do you think I want to? To have some tea on this dragon's back? So I can watch him breath? No, I think it's time that we wake up our guest." She snapped at the teen. He blinked in response.

'_Interns'_ she thought. She walked though the door and they began to set up for wakening the beast. After they dragged the interns out they locked the door.

Nobody was coming in and nobody, certainly a 20 foot dragon, wasn't going to come out.

**YAY! (I really should stop saying that…since I say that **_**every**_** week :p)**

**So yep, chapter 3 up. Unwin is so fun to work with! She' so **_**sharp!**_

**Do any of you have any idea what's going to happen in the story? **

**Oh yeah, if **_**ten**_** of you review by Monday then I'll push up the date to Friday. Deal?**

**R&R&R**

**Brightfrost**

**PS If Artemis and Holly was mine then they would be doing odd strange things, like dancing the Can-Can! So it's best to say that they aren't. **

**Swann, the dragon and the plot in MINE! So go dance the CAN-CAN! LOL**


	5. Bleary Eyes

_Bleary Eyes_

Everything went blurry, his thoughts, the world, everything. He felt like he was still swirling. He was on his side on a hard surface. He was tired, like he had been flying all day long and finally crashed in a cave somewhere. With an effort he cracked an eye open and closed it just a fast. A blaring light shot like daggers his eyes, not at all like the dimmer light that he was used too.

He vaguely wondered where he was. He shifted slightly, his scales made a rushing sound on the stone. He was hungry, the last thing he had to eat was a deer and that was yesterday and definitely was not enough.

Just the thought of food, made his mouth water. He breathed in through his nose and a flood of information shot to his brain. A Mud Man, no, correction, Mud _Woman_ had been near his nose and so had several other Mud Men. There was steel and other metals, some rock and the horrid smell of paint. There was an ever so slight smell of a concoction of plants, that he recognized after a second of examination, as a sedative.

That's when it all came rushing back to him: the flight, the sun bath, the Men with their guns, the fatal escape, falling into the lake, calling on his magic, swimming to safety, collapsing on the sand and now this. His heart pounded as he realized in horror where he must be, a lab of some sort, being examined like animal.

He flexed a few muscles, to see how much they had hampered his movement. Something was around his rib cage, two more of the same were wrapped around his legs and then around his face. He was trapped, he could tell even without opening his eyes.

There was no use in waiting, reluctantly he opened his eyes. The light blared again and he winced. Slowly the light retreated as his eyes adjusted. The first thing he focused on was the thing on his face. Metal was around his mouth, he could open it a few inches to get air. A muzzle. Anger flared in his chest, some things weren't necessary, this was one of them.

The floor was painted black and the walls, white. The space was quite big. If he was able to get up he could pace to one side and turn around easily. No room to fly though, he could probably touch the ceiling with his wings half folded.

There was a wall of glass on one side. He could see the faces looking at him through it. This was quite humiliating, if his friends saw this…wait, were they even alive? He dismissed this thought, better to leave it.

There were cameras in every corner and two slots in two of the walls. He could only guess what those were for. A quick fix to bad behavior before it got out of hand, he thought tersely.

An English voice blared into the room. It was loud and harsh compared to some of the smoother dialect he had encounter in his life . He closed his eyes, he didn't want to hear it, but his gift of tongues kindly translated it.

"Dragon, we know you're wake. If you understand this raise your head." The female voice said. Through the glass he could see someone step back from the microphone, but couldn't see any details.

He had two choices, he could play dumb or claim that he understood. The former was the better of the two, but they were humans and they would quickly figure it out. He didn't want to take or tolerate their anger.

Slowly he opened his eyes again, there was only one choice. The dragon gradually pulled his flexible neck until he was staring at them face to face. He flared with anger. He didn't want to be here, he had been trapped for three hundred years and only had one morning to relax before these Mud Men trapped him.

He wished that he could open his mouth all the way so he could let them how he felt but he couldn't. Of course he would use his language instead of theirs; it was much more…_effective_.

They talked among themselves like bees in a beehive. He decided his point had been taken and he laid his head back down. He was tired, all he wanted was to go back to asleep and wake up back in the woods where he belonged.

He drifted back asleep. Life was not good at the moment. He hoped when he awoke things would be different, starting with how strong these bands were.

He woke up, they were fighting now. He wondered what it was about, he could hear their muffled voices though the glass. He wished that they would stop and let him go back asleep, once again the world of dreams claimed him.

The next time he woke they had stopped. Then what had woke him? The door. The door had been opened and closed, why? He jumped went he saw the woman in the doorway. The bonds strained but held_. What do you want now?_ He though crossly.

**O.o**

**CLIFFHANGER!**

**Don't you just love those? ;) Luckly for you I'm updating on Saturday so it won't be a whole week. If you have noticed I made the first chapter a quote from a later chapter, I think that it's an important quote. Who's Hero you ask? You'll just have find out!**

**A piece of computer cake for everybody that reviews! **

**Reviews makes me write more, then I might change it to 2 chapters a week! ;)**

**R&R&E!**

**BF**

I OWN EVERYTHING IN THIS CHAPTER! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!


	6. The Lethal Swan

_The Lethal Swan_

Inside Swann smiled, she had just scared a dragon. A human had just scared a dragon. Now it was glaring at her, its eyes cold as ice. He understood her, which was a breakthrough. Now it was just a question of if he could respond. Not that she was here to see that.

The graceful dragon's neck curved as he stared back at her. What a beautiful animal she thought. After a minute she walked towards him. In response she could hear a vague growl coming from his chest. There were two buttons on the remote in her hand. If she felt it was necessary, she could push the one on the right and the trainers would fire their tranquilizers. If she felt it was _necessary_, growling was not threatening. He was stating that he did not want her in his space.

He couldn't help it if she dismissed his warning, which she did. The fins on the back of his neck rose, before they were flat against his back. Another warning, she could almost hear the others saying that it was too dangerous.

Her high heels clicked on the floor, sending mini echoes around the room. He was tense, but he couldn't hurt her, at least not too badly. She stopped out of the range of his tail and neck. If she was any closer, he would bash her away with his head or whip-like tail.

She composed herself, if she was going state the facts then she had to do it seriously. "If you attempt to attack me or any of my personnel then we will tranquilize you. If you hurt or kill one of them or myself then you will get something a bit more lethal. I suggest that you behave and maybe we'll consider letting you out of those." She nodded towards the bonds which were made of several metals melted together. He wouldn't be getting out soon.

As for the last part of the deal, she could just hear the others complaining. Until she pointed out that she had said "consider" not "will". It always seemed to work in one of these situations. The dragon's eyes narrowed as he thought about this. Their eyes locked and his seemed to drill inside her, and pry out the truth.

She held her breath. Would he take the bait? The time seemed to draw out into an eternity. His eyes were unblinking and she didn't dare. Finally, he blinked and looked away. The rumble stopped in his chest, his wonderful sails were dropped, and he reluctantly relaxed. He still watched her warily.

She suppressed the feeling of triumph, there was no joy in trapping a creature in a corner, forcing it to agree to your terms and then gloat in front it. She could do it later, a good caramel latté and a small café would do it for her.

"Good." She said simply and walked inside the danger zone.

He stiffened again, but not as much as before. He watched her every step like a trapped animal watching the hunter approach. She walked right next to his head, fearless. The deal was made and a creature as honorable as a dragon wouldn't break it easily.

"Now, I am assuming that you would like to know where you are. You're in Montana. In this base which is swarming with humans that are armed and even if you get pass them you would still have to find a way though the hundreds of feet of dirt above us. We're underground and the whole base is run on transported oxygen. Simply put, if you were able to get out of the five feet of hard steel here we could cut our losses to a minimum and collapse the whole building with you in it." She shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. Of course all those numbers were extreme, but he didn't have to now that.

His face fell at that speech. He knew he was in their hands and he couldn't do anything about it.

"I should give you a few minutes to think on that." And she turned around without looking at him and walked out.

She walked over to one of his "handlers". "Prepare it." She snapped.

***

This wasn't getting any better. He was truly trapped, he was bound by honor, hundreds of feet underground, and somewhere that could crash around him under a second. He was sunk and in despair.

He rested his head back on the ground; it was cool and soothing to his whirling head. His eyes closed as he wished the world away. It wasn't going away. Again he opened them to see the people on the other side talking quickly to each other. He wished he was back in that cave.

He just wanted to go back to sleep and wake up somewhere else. Somewhere better and not human infested. Nothing was going his way, getting stuck was just the start of it. When you can live for over two thousand years he guessed that you would have streaks of bad luck. This one had been going on for three hundred years. When it changed then…they were going to feel it. In a different way, not in the explosion killing way but in an undermining way, no, not until the last minute when things are crashing around do you realize who's behind it.

The door opened again and the woman came in, she was sharp as a dagger even though she tried to cover it. He had no choice but to take her offer. It was either life or death. What was he suppose to do?

She walked to him again: "You have to be hungry. It's been"-she looked at her watch-"two days, maybe more since your last meal."

He looked sharply at the offer of food. Some things he needed, food was one of them. His stomach was doing back flips.

She smiled, walking right over to his face. "I saw that dragon." The scientist said gently almost in a teasing tone as she placed her hand on his cheekbone. He flinched at her touch. The dragon didn't trust her and for good reason. The next second his world was spinning once again.

**Things get worse don't they? I love it when things get worse! It makes it a better story! I had two chapters that I was going to put up today but one of them didn't get looked at so it was either one chapter or none. You know what I chose, and I think that you will agree with me. I'm going away for the weekend to the beach! Yay me! And we are leaving in about two hours from the house. So this was sorta last minute in it's own strange little way...**

**Some people had asked me some questions about the story and I answer them on my blog (****.****) I know that you I love to go there and read about my (boring) life! I also thank everybody so if you want to see your name I think that you should click the link. **

**Questions anybody? What do you think is going to happen in the plot? And how I'm I going to throw Holly and Artemis into this mess?**

**BF**

**I said their names only once, Mr. Fowl and Ms. Short are not mine thank you every much. The Dragon, Swann, and the plot are MINE! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!**


	7. Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers

Swann watched as the blue eyes grew big with shock and then closed. She felt bad about doing it, she just couldn't trust him with her men. Not yet. She checked his pulse, steady and calm. Good, it wouldn't kill him, She thought.

She raised a hand signaling it was clear. The door opened and she got up and walked out. They would deal with him. Connop had found a way down and was holding a phone.

"Yes, I understand, I'll tell her, thank you, ah here she is. Wait one second."He held out the phone to her.

"Artemis Fowl is on the phone and he wants to talk to you." She raised an eyebrow, Artemis Fowl, the rich genius in Ireland? Want did he want?

"_Why_?" She asked even though she knew the answer.

"He says he wants to help with the current secret project." He said watching the dragon, while the men were trying to find a crack in his armor. They had given up on finding one and were attempting to pull a scale out. By all the grunting and groaning, it wasn't going too well.

She moved closer to the phone, if he wanted to make it into the system he was going to have to ace her test. Geniuses didn't know anything, they were too stuffed up with their own "genius". She had earned her job with sweat and tears and he wasn't going to waltz right in and take it.

"Tell him that I don't want any young, foolish men raining my system. Tell him that I believe that he would be over his head, leave work to the grown ups and go back to his LEGO robots." She said in the range of the phone's receiver. In the shuttle Artemis gritted his teeth, realizing this wasn't going to be easy.

Connop stood there gapping at her, Swann's eyes narrowed. "What are you waiting for? Tell him."

Still in shock the phone came to his mouth and he translated: "She says: 'It's a government project and she doesn't want anybody from Ireland on it.'"

A second came and went as he listened, again he held out the phone and said: "He says that he would be a grand asset to this discovery and he would not be representing Ireland."

Unwin rolled her eyes and again, in range she replied: "Tell him that he is not getting in on this project because he would mess up all that I have done and probably blow up the building in the process. It's a no!"

He once again translated: "She says that you would ruin the progress on the project."

"He says, He would not ruin the project but just wants to observe what happens."

In range: "_Of course_ he does. Then he'll work his way in, with a few suggestions. Then soon he'll be on the payroll and doing my job. The final answer is _no_."

"She doesn't believe that you will just observe and she says no." He blinked and then looked at the phone as he hung up.

"What does he say?"

"He says…he says he will contact soon."

She rolled her eyes: men are so dramatic. She dialed the number to the surface base and said: "Yes, this is Uwin, We are going to shut down any touring and everyone who comes in must have a pass. See to it." And she closed the connection.

The men had finally pulled out a scale from the dragon's back. They had just finished the operation, she smiled as he was truly theirs now. He would heal quickly and hopefully he would never know what happened. Then if the time came, she would have an edge on him. She hated to have it though; it was cruel to keep him in such a gloomy condition. Swann and others had agreed on it, if he got cocky he could probably take down the building.

Now they were unlocking him, soon he would be loose in the room. He knew there was no way out. It would be good for her to keep her part of the deal. She needed to gain his trust, since the tests would only work if he wanted participated.

The last bond was unlocked, she watched as they dragged out the muzzle. It seemed like it wasn't necessary. He would wake up soon and she would watch him from the other side of the glass. She needed to trust him first before he could, possibly, trust her.

Ten minute late he started to stir. A simple tail switch sent a murmur thoughout the group of people. She felt a spark on anticipation, why? She didn't know. His blue eyes flickered open. He whirled to his feet and his fangs slit the air where she had stood barely twenty minutes ago. The hairs on the back of her neck rose, could have killed her in one bite.

**The next chapter is pretty big, then they get smaller and smaller until they are one pagers. Don't worry! After chapter 16 they turn big (4-5 pages). Sorry it's just the way I work. Might I mention that they are all mostly cliffhangers? :P hee hee. **

**Answers to reviews, ****.**

**I got a riddle for you! Do you know the answer to it??**

_**Fee Fi Fo Fum,**_

**First I heard my dinner come.**

_**Fo Fum Fee Fi, **_

**Then I smelt it going by.**

_**Fi Fo Fum Fee,**_

**Then I saw it try to flee.**

_**Fum Fee Fi Fo, **_

**Then I touched it with my toe. **

_**Fee Fi Fo Fum, **_

**Now I'll taste it-yum, yum, yum!**

**I have used five things today**

**With one name. What is it pray?**

**Look above to find a clue**

**Or my dinner will be---YOU! **

**Don't cheat! What is it? If guess it right my dragon won't come hunt you down for dinner! (See blog, Halloween) **


	8. Flowers

Flowers

Artemis stood there at the desk. Something that he didn't do very often, the smell of fake flowers was awful and he didn't like it. If it was his house they would have been real and replaced once daily. The smell was coming from the awful cheap perfume on the desk lady's neck. Very very very cheap, probably only $15 and was draining the life out of her and as the synthetic flowers in the bowl were draining Mother Earth. Of course they weren't _his_ plastic flowers, they were the _governments_; making theirs a lot better then the home grown, natural ones in the gardens in Ireland, red plastic poppies and all.

He knocked on the desk again: "Is she on her way?" Holly was hovering near by. She wanted to see this for herself. After looking thought their security he devised away for her to come with him. He warned her that LEP had told her to stay in the shuttle.

She just smiled that smile for hers and replied: "You should know by now Mudboy….that hasn't even crossed my mind and it won't. Let's go." She was fingering her Neutrino at the time.

Butler wasn't there. He was too old, he had even admitted it. Instead he was manning the shuttle and making sure that he could still contact them.

The desk lady glared at him, any other time he would have said something to this but today things were different. She had that look that grownups give kids who are too impatient for their own good.

"Yes, she almost here, Doctor Uwin looks angry though. Watch out." She leaded back in the chair resuming her reading of _"The Beauty Magazine"_.

Fowl sighed and that was the moment that Doctor Swann Uwin burst though the door. They slammed against the wall with a thud leaving two black spots behind. Those would be nice for the janitors to clean up.

"I told you Fowl to go back to your LEGO Robots! I don't want you here!" Her tight lips snapped. Her white lab coat was a bit dirty and her hair was coming down. That was only difference between the last time when they had talked, two hours ago from the shuttle.

Fowl remained composed. It was vital for the sake of the dragon. He pushed away from the desk and replied: "It's good to finally meet you in person. Doctor Uwin. I am here to help with your project."

The desk lady raised an eyebrow she didn't even know what was down there. Swann sighed impatiently an adjusted her glasses. "I am in the middle of something very important right now, I can not deal with you. Go wait in the lobby with the other scientists that want in and wait your turn!" She snapped.

He pulled out an ace. "Of course. I could tell them all about the dragon that you are about to let loose. That would be a fun subject to talk about." A vampire grin was making its way across his face. The desk lady paled as white as a sheet.

The doctor blinked in shock then she got very, very angry. "How do you know that! This is a top secret project that's under lock and key from the government. The files are under multiple passwords. Nobody has left the building since I arrived even if their shift is over. They sleep here, they eat here, they _live_ here! I am sure that there is no breech."

Artemis leaned against the desk, calmly taking the women's angry words. "I know. That is why I found another way. A way that I will not tell you, that is why I suggest that you let me in."

The desk lady had pulled out a paper and was quickly writing on it.

"I could have you arrested." She threatened, smiling.

"You won't though, That would be a public uproar. 'Artemis Fowl arrested for trying to help with a secret government project'. That has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Of course then you would have to reveal your project. Another public uproar."

A bead of sweat rolled down Uwin's forehead, "I could force you to sign papers that would seal your lips forever."

"Really?" He said gently pulling out one of the fake flowers and studying it. "I don't think you can do that to an Irish visitor. I don't think so."

Sunshine was filtering though the windows, alighting on the polyester petals. Quite peaceful.

Swann frowned, her lips going down and she thought about that statement. Fowl glanced down at the paper that the desk lady was signing. That would seal the deal.

"No, you're not coming down. I will deal with you later. You will stay here until-"The desk lady had stood up and was handing her the paper. "What?" She snapped and took the paper.

"I-I-I cann-n-n't do this-s-s. I qu-i-i-t." She practically ran though the double doors, leaving a horrid stench that could be tracked for miles.

"Wise woman." Artemis commented smugly. He gently placed the flower on the desk and continued: "What will it be? That? Or something much simpler." He motioned to the still swinging doors, the light spiraling though them like stars.

The doctor followed his hand and she opened her mouth. A buzz filled the air. It came from the black phone in her hand.

"Yes?" Her face paled as the speaker spoke. She slammed it shut.

"You better be a fast thinker and a faster runner." Doctor Swann Uwin swirled around and dashed though the doors. Her high heels barely following.


	9. Instincts

Instincts

In the dragon's mind the wall was the trouble. Something about being locked up for the second time in his life made him feel angry. Quickly he was skirting on the edge of being livid which was the reason the wall was coming down. He didn't care about the building or the humans in it. He wanted out and he was going to get out no matter what. To him it was more important than his life.

He felt like he had been stuck all his life and he was now just fed up. That was why the wall in front of him was coming down. He knew that he would look back at this moment and think: "What was I thinking?" but that would be later.

First things first, softening the metal. Easily enough, he thought, the smell of smoke filled the air as he let a rush of flame out of his chest. It felt good to be breathing fire again. It was much better than waiting around for some human.

He watched as half of the metal slid down and still he could barely see though. Enlarging holes wasn't really a problem either, that was what claws were for .The wall was like putty. This was going to hold him back? Hardly, He thought.

A small hall adjoined his space. The white dragon breathed in. He slithered down into the human tunnel. Lights flickered as he cast a simple spell and started to make his way.

The sounds of feet were coming closer. He knew they had guns. He knew what they would be doing. He wasn't that dumb. Ants were dumb, dragons are quite the opposite.

The wall screeched as his scales dragged against it. It hurt slightly but not enough to do any real damage. He could clean up later with a barbed tongue or a spell. He clamored down, the pitter patter of shoes were echoing in the hall. They had found friends.

A door was in the way, why stop and incinerate it? he wondered. He started to run and bashed straight though it. It didn't hurt. It might have been a few inches of dry wall, nothing substantial. Dust was now flying behind him.

He strained as he breathed in. More fresh air, he was closer. Much closer. A door opened in front of him and two humans stepped out, him and….a fairy? He was forced to skid to a stop. Half of the floor came up as well; tile was never very good to run on.

_She_ was there. Doctor Uwin, the one that had trapped him into this situation and there was a younger human, maybe fifteen or so, standing next to her in a suit. The human looked him over coolly and just smiled. The fairy was shielding, he couldn't tell much about her.

He didn't have time for this. Uwin paled as the creature's white fangs grinned at her. The boy stepped aside with a simple nod. The fairy followed the human. _They must know each other,_ he thought as he grinned at the doctor.

The dragon stepped towards the doctor enjoying the look on her face. He rushed at her and grabbed her white coat retching her with it. He thought about finishing this now, but the footsteps were coming even closer. He threw the figure back into the elevator with a thud and looked after her as the doors closed. She wasn't getting out of there anytime soon.

The boy raised an eyebrow and said calmly: "The first door on your right is the ticket out of here."

No time for words, he nodded back and left the boy and fairy in the dust and flying tiles. His horn rammed into one of the lights above him sending a buzz though his head. His magic would fix that.

The fairy was following him. She just put herself in danger's way and he would probably have to repay her. He would deal with that when he had too, but not now though. The dragon bashed though another wall. More drywall, that was supposed to hold back a dragon? Hardly. He was now in a real tunnel. The floor was made of smoothed rock. Naked light blubs were strung on the ceiling and it had a musty smell and feel to it.

There they were, the humans, dressed in green and black, the ones who had taken him down before. They stopped and cocked their weapons. "Give up dragon there is no way out." They commanded.

His breathing was heavy as he turned around slowly. He murmured under his breath in gnomish: "Get behind me fairy."

The fairy jerked in surprise. She thought he didn't know? Yeah right. Of course that was the moment that they let loose their fire.

He lunged forward and grabbed the fairy by the wings. He knew that they weren't real. Fairies hadn't had real wings for eons. There was a crackle and buzz as sparks flew from the invisible wings. The fairy was making his teeth buzz as she shielded. He lowered his head, using his wings to shelter the fairy from the projectiles.

The spell held. The bullets made pings as they hit his wings which were fortified by magic and nothing could pass them. It was like a constant drumming of rain on the white membrane. It wouldn't hold for long, but hopefully long enough for them to run out of ammo. He gently let go of the wing allowing the fairy to sit on the hard rock.

The fairy unshielded; decked out in black material with wires threading though it and a gun of some sort on her hip. A hard helmet covered her head from damage. The wings were just as he had thought, mechanical and luckily still in good condition.

Her hand pushed a button and the visor rose with a hiss. Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him, her auburn hair plastered to her forehead. She seemed astonished to see him. Were there really no other dragons around? He wondered.

The thrumming stopped. He waited as the foot steps retreated. Time to get going again. The dragon gently furled his colorless wings and said: "You should really get out of here."

He turned and bashed though a metal door and shot up the hole leaving the fairy staring after him.

***

Holly watched the tail shoot up the shaft and the spell broke. She shook her head in amazement and stood up. Her wings would work but, she couldn't go as fast as him though. A small price to pay for almost becoming swiss cheese.

"He's up the shaft Arty. Now what?" She said into her mike as she shimmered out of sight. She knew what was coming. The wings squealed like pigs as they revved up.

"The chase begins. Doctor Uwin is fine after a shot of magic and the rest are being chased by a squad of fairies. They'll be wiped and the building destroyed. Go chase a dragon Holly, I'll be in the shuttle going though their information." He then disconnected calmly.

That was all that she needed. She pushed the thrusters to the fullest and shot up the shaft like a hawk after prey. She saw the creature at the top as he emerged. The scales sparkled like diamonds in the air and his wings rose to their fullest and the mighty creature seemed to float in the air.

Then, he was gone, he turned tail and flew away. Holly curse on her wings for being so slow. The shaft smelled of metal and rock. The fairy emerged and buzzed off in the direction of the white tail.

The dragon flew with precision, each thrust down brought him farther up until he reached a thermal and spiraled up into the sky. As he started to pick up speed, his wings stroked faster and choppier. Holly pushed her wings again, they sputtered in reply.

The landscape was beautiful. Mountains rose out of the ground and touched the sky, surrounding by groves of trees. A single road wound though the mountain side like a snake though the grass.

The air was clean and fresh and Holly was tempted to open her visor but she was going too fast for that. Instead she shouted into her speaker: "Dragon! We really need to talk about some things!"

He looked back and then replied in a voice that sounded like wind going though bamboo, a soft roughness to it. "Thanks for helping but I have things to do." He said as he continued his flight though the mountains.

This isn't going to be easy, he thought, as the fairy said, "You don't want to be captured again! Do you?"

He paused for a second and then replied confidently: "I won't. I'm a dragon; they just caught me off guard. Fairy I will be _fine_." There was a flash of irritation on the last word. He sharply turned and disappeared under the cover of one of the mountains.

Captain Short turned the corner and stopped still. He was gone. The forest was still and quiet except for the fluttering of a few birds startled by her arrival. As quickly as the last dragon on earth was found and he was gone again.

**O.o**

**WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW?!?!?!?**

**I know. You don't. You'll just have to wait till Wednesday when I make up from late week.**

**Answers and 'thanks you(s)' to all that commented: ****.**

**The answer to last week's riddle was…: The Five Senses! Go back and look, you'll see. Lucky for those didn't guess right the dragon is pretty tired from editing…lucky for you! ;-)**

**See yah on Wednesday!**

**R&R&E!**

**BF**

**This week's:**

_**What gets wetter the more it dries?**_

_**---**_

**I am not the brilliant Eoin Colfer or any of his characters hence they are his, though I am Brightfrost who owns Swann, the Plot and the White Dragon.**


	10. The Spoken

The Spoken

The Coffee Shop wasn't very popular on a Friday morning. The light gathered and streamed though the window resting on anybody who was sitting on the high tables next to it. The smell of caffeinated drinks filled the air with its vigor and zest. The spread out tables gave the patrons places to sit in peace away from the world. The chairs were spread out like somebody had a tossed deck of cards.

The whirring machines mixed and shook beverages to perfection. On the shelf was an array of muffins and sandwiches waiting for a purchase; their smells tickling the buyer's noses. The man behind the counter was Cuban and he hummed and slightly danced to the latest tune playing on the radio.

The people were as diverse as the drinks they bought. Five years olds were scribbling franticly in a coloring book in the corner as the grown up looked on. Occasionally one would peep up and say something loudly so all could hear. There was also a frail couple sipping their tea watching the steam curl and swirl in the air, they would speak softly about the weather and granddaughters.

Four or five teens sat hunched over typing on laptops. Some had earphone running to their ears while others listened to the tunes from the speaker in the ceiling. Most were typing reports, making their own music with the clicking and clacking of the keys.

The peace was broken when a young man blustered though the door. His copper red hair was a wreck and slight stubble was breaking though on his face. He trudged over the mat and stood staring at the board that had English scribbles on it.

"Can I help you today?" The Cuban man said as he wiped his hand on a cloth.

The man scuffed his black shoes while his muscular arm reached in the back pocket of his blue jeans. He had that fresh out of college look. His solid stance gave an independent and free air to him.

"Yeah, I think that I will have some tea." He mumbled as he gave up on the pocket and shoved his hand his grey military jacket.

"What kind sir?" the worker asked typing the order in the machine. It clicked in response.

He drew his free hand though his slight spiked hair and sighed. He had a slight English accent to his voice. He squinted as he read the list.

"The Wild Berry…Zinger?"

He nodded, "Yep, One Wild Berry Zinger. Would you like anything else to go with that?" His fingers poised over the numbers that would add up to money.

His blue eyes looked over the muffins and sandwiches and replied: "I think I'll have a bag of chips, please."

More numbers clicked. "Of course. I'll be right back with the tea." He hurried off and picked up a cup as he went.

The man turned around and surveyed the room. The five year old squawked, the teens typed, the Cuban man hummed, the soft voices of the grandma and grandpa continued. He shrugged and pulled out a few hundred bills.

Two of them were stuffed back in his pocket as the man turned around with the steaming beverage and a bag of brown chips. He laid them on the counter and looked at the output.

"That will be $4.75, please and the tea is hot." He said cheerfully.

The young man handed over the singular bill and smiled back. "Keep the change." He grabbed the cup and chips and wandered off into the tables while the Cuban man just stared at the money in his hand.

"What's your story?" A woman asked casually from one of the larger table and motioned to other chair.

The English man looked at the chair and then sat down with her. "What's yours?" he said smarty back.

The light coppered skin reddened on her face as she fixed her black bun. Her nut brown almond eyes sparkled. "Amara, Amara Sanfilippo." She extended her hand and they shook.

There was a strange symbol on Amara's hand, a bunch of swirls together. The English man's blue eyes lit on it and widened. Amara just smiled in return, she was tall and slim with a strange grace to her.

"Herodes. What brings you here?" He said fingering the cream porcelain mug. She shifted in her seat, the silver hoops in her ears sliding along her neck. She fiddled with a button on her grey vest.

"It's Friday. I have nothing to do. This seemed like a good idea, better than staying home. Never seen you before, where are you from?"

"England." He said uncertainly, turning a silver spoon in the drink.

Amara smiled and replied, "You don't sound very certain about that Herodes."

He smiled back. "Please call me Hero, everybody I know does. To answer your question I have lived all over the world, so when people ask me I have to think about it."

"Sure." She said as if she didn't believe him. "What made you end up here?"

Hero shrugged. "Just passing though; I'm going to South America and then maybe Africa."

"_Really?" _Amara replied in the same voice leading forward propping her chin on her hands.

He sipped his tea and steam enveloped his face, he calmly took a slip and sighed, steam curled out of his mouth. "Yep."

"Why are you here? You seem like someone that should be in New York." He said nodding at her sharp outfit. She grinned.

"I was living there. But….it didn't work out." She said averting her gaze out the window.

He looked up in interest. "What happened?"

She flitted with her earring. "A long story that's really boring but best to say that I just had to escape from the city for a while and ended up here, in the middle of no where." She shrugged.

"That is so true." He agreed taking another sip of the tea.

She chuckled, "Yeah, I know. There isn't another town for miles."

Herodes opened the bag of chips. "Really? I didn't know that. Why don't you show me what's here to see?" The air hissed out.

She stood and grabbed his arm. "Why not? I going to met some friends…why don't you come with me, assuming that you have nothing better to do in a little town."

"Nope," He said cheerfully allowing her to usher him out the door, leaving the five year olds, teens, grandparents and the Cuban man who was $95.25 dollars richer.

***

**I LOVE THIS CHAPTER TO DEATH! I really don't know why, I just can read this chapter over and over without getting bored. Some piece random info, I wrote this in my coffee shop that I often go to. And yes, even the Cuban man was there. ^.^ Hero wasn't though. -.- **

**Now you know the strange person that said the quote on the first page. O.o the mystery is over!**

**Amara and Herodes are my new favorite characters that you are going to see a lot of. Now we have two pairings ArtemisxHolly (Ar/Ho) and HeroxAmara (He/Am). I honesty didn't mean to make their names start with the same letters! .**

**I hope you'll learn to love them as much as I do!**

'**Till Friday!**

**Brightfrost**

**Reviews on reviews (Please take out the spacing) www. Brightfrostblog. Blogspot. com**

Pronunciation: **Herodes** _He-row-dez_ **Amara** _A-mar-a_

Last weeks riddle answer: A towel (too easy)

If you got last weeks you might have some trouble with this one…

_The part of the bird_

_That is not in the sky_

_Which can swim in the ocean_

_And always stays dry._

_What is it?_

Artemis & Holly are Eoin Colfer

Herodez, Amara, the plot are mine. oh don't forget the hundred dollars! ^.^


	11. Breaking Bonds

_Breaking Bonds_

Something in the dirt shifted, the movement would hardy cause a worry. It could be a worm, mole or other creature. A mouse scampered off to hide in a log as the dirt moved again, this time harder and a stick moved rolled of the pile.

The forest was still quite, a brown deer looked up from grazing nearby and the sun shown brightly though the gap in the canopy. A snake hissed as he climbed up in the branches. The smell of decaying earth was playing in the air.

The soil suddenly burst upwards to show two nostrils flaring for breath. It snorted, the deer's ear shot back and it bounded off; rolling its eyes. The light colored dirt fell though the air like confetti. There was a grunt and the nostrils pushed forward to show a snout. The red scales glimmered in the sunlight.

The snout turned into a mouth, the mouth turned into a face and the face turned into a head. His eyes slowly opened into the glare of the sun. Vivid green eyes searched the ground and he shook his head. Earth flew from his horns and with a grunt, a pair of lethal claws appeared.

The dragon hauled himself from mother earth. Her claws slowly letting him go. His ruby red scales glinted in the sun, the spikes on his back were pure white. He snarled, pallid fangs smiling in a deadly way. At the end of his tail was a ball of spikes the size of a basket ball; the spikes curled in anticipation of the next victim.

He took a breath and roared, shrieking though the sky ripping it apart. Birds flew in terror, the trees quivered in fear. The ground shook. Deer and wolves fled the valley, not caring that they were running as one. For miles around, it could be heard, the sound that could only mean death or destruction, a vengeful sound that would chill the heart of any brave soul.

Then he called a challenge, one that would echo though the mountains.

"You thought that you could keep me at bay? The Earth can only hold me for so long! Let's finish what we started so I can kill those wretched Mudmen and watch their world burn into pieces!"

**Oh yes...this is JUST THE BEGINNING! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!! LOL sorry, I couldn't help it. There is more to come, with twists and turns. ;) But that's the way that you like it correct? Now I think of it every chapter from this point foward is very much a cliffhanger. **

**I honstly would rather have a review than a fav any day, I know that sounds a bit strange but your comments mean alot to me...or you could do both! ^-^**

**I missed a chapter in the story so I uploaded it during the week: _"Flowers"_ Go back and read it!**

**Also I need your help! I have this still unnamed character in this story and I want your option! So I set up a poll on my AUTHORS PAGE. I want it to be a suprise what the character's name is so I made it blind. :D Please vote!**

**R&R&E!**

**BF**

**Reviews on Reviews: www. brightfrostblog. blogspot. com (take out spaces) SPOILERS TO LATEST CHAPTER!**

**Riddle:**

**_Can you tell what rhymes with moon,_**

**_And could be written on a page,_**

**_Or on a rock for age on age,_**

**_This ancient letter tell me soon!_**

**_What is it?_**

Last weeks answer: Shadow


	12. Reality

Reality

**FYI: This is the next day**

Swann woke with a start, something was wrong, danger was near, so was pain and death. She shot up in bed and gasped as she grappled to remember why. Then it seemed to disappear…like a cloud or a dream it was just out of reach.

Slowly she lowered herself back onto the bed and sighed. It must have been a dream. She realized she wasn't in her nightgown but jeans and a shirt. Unwin guessed she must have been out late and just flopped down on her bed. But then how was she under the covers if she had _flopped _down on the bed?

Again she propped herself up and shook her head. Something wasn't making sense; she smoothed the wrinkles on the silk cream cover. Maybe she had a drink and that was why last night was so blurry? But that was a very unlikely thing for her to do.

She glanced at the clock, it was…11:30! She was late, beyond late, she threw off the cover and jumped to her feet, then chuckled. She was on vacation. No need to worry about going to work unless she was hoping on a plane and going to Montana. What about Montana? She didn't know about any project in Montana. Swann sighed, strolling over to the window.

The room had a cream theme to it. The walls were cream and the paintings on the wall, depicting beach scenes with beach goers and children having fun were the only bright spot in the room. The plush carpet was the top quality and light streamed though the large French doors leading out to the porch.

Doctor Unwin blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light. The sea was pounding against the sand as people tanned and played in the water. Boats were already out on the water, plunging and rising in it. The smell of salt filled her senses, as screaming gulls flew above her porch, wanting food. A breeze played with her hair tangling it and streaming it out behind her.

She strolled across the tile floor and leaned against the rail peering over at the pool, filled with mostly rich parents, retired and successful people like herself. Their movements blurred together into some abstract painting.

She stood there trying to remember last night. Nothing came to mind; she guessed she would remember some time. What ever she had done it couldn't have been _that_ bad. Swann wandered back in, and realized that there was breakfast covered on the regal mahogany table.

After taking a quick shower the brown haired woman sat down to a breakfast of eggs, bacon, fresh squeezed orange juice and French toast. Swann wandered over to her laptop set up on the desk. She opened it and connected to the hotel's internet browser.

Maybe there was news on the dragon project, she thought absent mindedly. She frowned. Dragon project? What about the dragon project? Dragons are myths and nothing else. Children loved them because they were cool, along with fairies, Pooh Bear and Tinkerbelle.

She chuckled, until she saw the front page at Yahoo. There was a story, it seemed big, and something she should know. Again something was trying to break though in the back for her head as she clicked the video clip.

It showed a woman, about twenty or so, blustered by the wind. She was standing in front of what looked like a burned down hut. The area around the it was in ashes as well. There was ash on the woman's face, Swann doubted that it got there on its own.

"Hello, this is Cinda Spalding reporting live from Asia." The woman started in a dramatic tone, "Early this morning, this whole village was burn down to the ground, putting one in critical care and several others with major burns. This catastrophe was intentional if you can believe it. This whole town, their entire life is smoldering in this clearing."

Swann vaguely wondered if Cinda Spalding knew half the words she was saying.

Undoubtedly _Miss _Cinda stylishly tossed her hair before continuing. "This was intentional-" Swann rolled her eyes, she had just _said_ that-"and an unkind thing to do to any peace loving community that just lives off grains and the animals of their work. They said it was like nothing that they had ever seen, large and menacing, with a horrific gaze. From what they say it swooped in and destroyed the whole town with it's breath of fire and flame."

The doctor blinked 'fire and flame'? What does that mean? She totally forgot her comment on how Spalding had mispronounced the word 'horrific'. Something was tingling in the back of her brain.

They widened the shot until it was in full view of what looked like an ash pile with a few logs sticking out of it. By the looks of it nothing was left to savage.

"This is what is left to the people of the village. This morning I saw them walking along their once busy street poking the ashes with sticks, most of them were crying. All the livestock was eaten while they fled, probably by wolves." Another reporter dashed into the video and whispered something in her ear. Cinda's eyes grew big and then she said into the mike.

"We've just gotten word that one of the villagers took a video of the monster with his phone before he ran. We will run that clip now, this is Cinda Spalding reporting from Asia and this is your news now."

The screen went blank for a second or two, Swann wondered what was going on.

Then a blurry image started to play, screaming and the sounds of running could be heard. People were fleeing passed the camera, their eye open wide and hair streaming behind them. The village was still in one piece by the looks of it. Things were getting knocked over by the fleeing people.

Then a swooshing sound came though, it was as if someone had taken a bed sheet pulled it up and quickly pulled it down. Everyone froze, the screaming stopped and the man who was running the camera seemed to be praying under his breath.

It appeared in the sky, the wings were open, the dawn's light streaming though them putting the whole town in a sickening reddish glow. It glided over the man, a simple swoop over the town. Even with the poor quality of the video Swann could see the scales, red like the wings, they shown in the light like they were wet with blood. Swann knew she was hundreds of thousands of miles away but she couldn't help be shiver at the sight of it.

The pointed head was looking sharply right and left, looking for something. Horns were spiraling behind its head. The ball at the end of the tail sailed out of view, and the man dropped the camera and all you could hear were his footsteps.

The lens was propped upwards into the dawn colored sky. The screaming continued and then there was flash of flame, almost hitting the screen. The sound went out and the screen turned into a sea of pixels. Swann's eyes narrowed, something was trying to click in the back of her head.

Pixels moved and swam on the screen for a second longer and then cleared. Again she was looking at the dawn sky, in the corner there were flames. The camera shook, the Doctor guessed that what ever it was had landed.

The head suddenly rose into the sky. The flames were lighting up his face, his nostrils flared, red eyes alight with arrogance. Short stubby horns dotted his chin like stubble on a man. The dragon glared at the camera and then smiled and the tape ended.

Unwin gasped as suddenly memories flooded her head, the white dragon, the mountains, the teen, Artemis, the escape, and flashes of strange people with long ears. Pushing back her chair she stumbled back in shock of what had just come back into her mind.

"You…" she hissed her eyes hot with fire. "You won round one, but today is different. Today I will have you once again you cursed dragon. And this time I will be prepared for your little fairy friends."

**A/N: I do not own Tinkerbelle, Pooh Bear or Yahoo! Though Swann is mine! HUAHAHA! With her newly found memory and everything!**

**Another chapter, Another twist. I told you that this is a rollercoaster. I hope you stay for the ride! ;)**

**Last answer: Nothing (seriously nothing is the answer)**

**This weeks:**

_**The wave, over a wave, a weird thing I saw,**_

_**Through-wrought, and wonderful ornate,**_

_**A wonder on the waves, water becomes bone.**_

**Reviews on reviews: www. Brightfrostblog. Blogspot. Com (please take out the spaces) SPOILERS TO THE LATEST CHAPTER! **

**PS. A question for you to ponder: What does the Red Dragon have to do with anything and everything?**

'**Till next Friday! (the next chapter is called 'Red Scales')**


	13. Red Scales

Red Scales

YouTube

"Well, there goes your cover Holly, they know now." Artemis calmly said stopping the video which was projected on the plasma screen.

Foaly was grim as he typed in a search program, "Yep it's all over the internet and spreading like wild fire. There are already at least a hundred copies of it on YouTube. There is no way that I could delete it now and not have to mindwipe the world."

Artemis rested in a chair, "I can't believe it, there are _two_ of them out there."

"Who says that there were two? For all we know this could be the same dragon and he just changed his appearance. They are about the same size and build except for the tail and spikes." Holly reasoned as she sat by a laptop and pulled up an image for the lab files.

It showed a 3D image of the white dragon. With a few clicks she made the dragon stand in the same way as in the video. Arty walked over and looked at the picture.

"I don't think so, something about this isn't that dragon's style." He said.

Holly looked up at him with a glare. "Who knows? Do we really know his personality?"

The Mud boy's eyebrows furred, "He put himself in danger to save you and then turn around and this? There are two dragons."

"He does have a point there." Foaly piped from the computer, "Though we don't know about any other dragon."

Holly Short swirled around his chair to face the manger of OPS. "If there are two dragons then why haven't we been able to pin down the _other _20 foot dragon that's probably fly around our heads?"

"He's slippery. We'll nab him soon, you know that. He'll slip and we'll catch him." The centaur replied coolly.

"What if this is him? Why aren't we doing anything about it?" Holly interrogated.

Foaly sighed, "This just came in ten minutes ago Holly, in about five we are all going to hop into a shuttle and go to the location. Right now we are just waiting until that shuttle is ready."

"There is a red and white out there, all we need is a blue and we've got the US colors." Holly said with sarcasm.

"We'll also have the flag of Belarus, Hong Kong, Georgia, Canada and Madagascar among many others right now, if we get a green one, we'll have Abkhazia, Algeria, Chechenia, Tajikistan, Ichkeria, and Ingushetia." Artemis rattled off and turned to a fairy laptop and started typing on the keyboard.

"Don't forget Bulgaria, their flag color are also red, white and green." The centaur replied with out even blinking. "But if it's red, white, and black then we have Germany and Swiss."

"And Egypt." Artemis replied, lifting a finger not even looking up from the monitor.

Holly burst. "I don't care about flag colors right now! What I care about is getting that dragon somewhere where it won't blow up another town! Can we stop with the flag colors and hurry up so we can do something about this disaster?"

"Disaster Flags, there are….four. Diver down, Gale warning, Hurricane and Storm warning, they all have red and white except the Hurricane and storm one, they have black instead of white." The Mudman replied, ignoring Holly.

"Japanese Navy, Red Crescent, Red Cross and the Tongan Navel Enigma are red and white as well." Offered Foaly, pulling a stick from the computer and stuffing it in his pocket.

My words went straight over their heads, Holly thought fluming.

Artemis slipped the laptop into a hard case: "Funny, White usually stands for peace, purity, life, clean and good. Red stands for aggression, blood, guilt, anger, hate, fire, sacrifice, sin, violence, negativity, danger and a warning. They are the opposite. Are we dealing with a dragon with an identity problem?" He smiled.

A chuckle came from the centaur as he packed up some complicated devices. Artemis slung the laptop strap over his shoulder. Foaly quickly grabbed a few things and trotted out leaving Holly and Artemis in the room.

The teen smiled and strolled passed Holly. He affectingly ruffled the elf's short hair, making several locks fall into her face. "You better hurry Holly or else we may leave you in the dust."

Holly frowned and grabbed the offensive arm with both hands, quickly and effectively flipping him onto his back. Artemis winced as pain jarred though his cranium and back. Slowly his pried his eyes open to see the brown haired elf above him, smiling right back at him.

"_You _better hurry Arty or else _I_ might run you over with the shuttle." She replied coolly and grabbed a LEP pack and stalked out leaving Arty in her dust.

**Love this chapter!!!**

**So much fun to write! . **

**Review?**

**Not much to say..then otherwise…TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE SWANN! YAY (not)! **

**BF**

**Answer: Rune**

**This week's:**

_**Like a coat of shinning mail,**_

_**On my back to my tail, **_

_**On a snake from tail to throat,**_

_**Never on a cow or a goat,**_

_**Sounds like eight notes on a harp.**_

_**And you'll find them on a carp. **_

_**(what is it?)**_


	14. Story

no name

The town was breezy and small; houses were squat and close together, the single brick street gave it a rich Victorian feel. Splotches of vibrant colors came from the billboards that stood out from the dull colors of the dwellings.

The town was so small that people walked up and down on the main street instead of using cars. From what Herodes gathered there was the coffee shop, barbers, a soda bar, a hundred year old general store, and a hardware store that matched in age. The smells of old wood and dry dirt danced in the air.

Old women strolled down the street in sunhats talking and minding each other's business. Hero could almost see them with the fancy old dresses and the lace umbrellas. Amara explained that the town had been here for ages and was the lost "jewel" of Montana, a place unpolished for tourists.

They ambled down the sidewalk as the Amara told him about the store owners. "The general's owner is Lambert, he makes everything a big deal. If you're there for a shirt he'll make sure that you see every single shirt in the store. But if you're specific he'll be a great help…but if you're general then you're in for a whole afternoon."She chuckled at her own words as they walked pass the store window. Lambert was showing a child a doll, his grey crafty eyes watched as the child hugged the porcelain toy.

A horse trotted by, his black coat shinning in the sun as his proud head curved as he snorted along with heavy foot falls. His hair was long and curvy as it bounced along his back, the dark tail with braided to keep it tangle free. The owner was a young girl about 13 years old. Her shinny sandy colored hair was tied in a bun and her eyes were bright with enjoyment. Her face was flushed from the ride and she had that long, lanky look of somebody who hadn't yet grown into her body. A T-shirt saying: "Easily Distracted" was on her back and a pair riding jeans completed the picture. Hero had to squint to see the words on the shirt, it was so dirty.

She saw the two of them and standing up in the stirrups she waved frantically. The pair stopped. She yelled joyfully: "Hey Amara! Wait up!"

The teen attempted to push the horse into a canter but he snorted in refusal, shaking the reins. Hero and Amanda paused, and waited as the girl and horse joined them. The young woman tried a few words of encouragement and dug her heels into the horse's side. This time the horse bolted forward and then stopped ten feet away from them and let the girl tumbled over his head -she landed in a plum of dust.

_That's why the shirt is so dirty_. Herodes thought as the horse walked over to rider and snorted in her face. Her eyes fluttered open and she weakly smiled up at his face.

"Alright you win." She sighed, the animal snorted again in her face and backed up. The teen's happy go lucky mood returned and she hopped to her feet and walked over to Amara as the black horse trotted off.

Amara smiled warmly: "Still having trouble Story?"

Story rubbed the back of her head and then looked at it to if there was blood on it, which there was. "Yeah, I'll get the hang on soon. Gillus is just so stubborn." She said in a pouty voice even though her lips were smiling.

Herodes leaded back against the building taking shelter from the sweltering sun. Story looked at him and then asked bluntly: "Who's the new guy?"

The woman scowled and then replied: "That was rude Story"-she looked at the man-"Sorry, my friend here isn't very good at being very social unless it's with horses."

The blonde teen scowled and put her hands on her hips, "That is sooo not true."

"Really? What about that time when you scared that Boy Scout off by trying to trampling him with a horse? Or the time when you had that Birthday party and you set fire to the table? Or what about the time when you nearly put the town back on the map when the pigs got loose and ate all the mail?"

The girl crossed her arms over her chest and replied hotly, "First of all I didn't even know that the Boy Scout was selling pop corn and I thought he was going after the chickens. And when they said 'blow out the candles, I did, it just so happened I blew them right off the table."

Herodes had to hold a hand over his mouth to smother a laugh. "And the pigs?" Amara inquired.

Story threw her up her hands, "That wasn't even my _fault!_ The mailman should have been watching for rampaging pigs!"

Amara covered her face with her hand and sighed. "Do you see my point?" She had pointed the question towards Herodes.

"No, I don't! I am social. I can be around more than just animals!" Story snapped before Herodes could even open his mouth.

The man smiled and replied: "Yes, I think I can."

"Good, now, Story this is Hero. Hero this is Story. 'Story' isn't her real name, it's…ah….um…what is it again?" Amara said puzzled.

"It's Storimista. Why can't you remember that? It's easy! It's 'story' with an 'i', 'mist' and an 'a'."- The teen replied as if that was the simplest thing in the world to remember, then her eyebrows furled-"And what sorta name is 'Hero'? Are you a hero or something?"

Hero laughed outloud, unable to hold it any longer. "No, no, no, I'm not a hero and I hope I never am. I never want to be one really. Hero stands for Herodes, it's easier to remember."

Story cocked her head to one side. "Why don't you want to be a hero? Doesn't everybody want to be one?"

A cool breeze dried the sweat on their faces. Then a surprised shriek and the suddenly an old woman yelled: "AGH?!?! STORY! GULLIS IS EATING ALL MY PANSIES! AGH! YOU BETTER COME HERE NOW OR ELSE YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR ALL OF THEM!!!"

Story's bounciness returned, "Ohp! That's all my savings at stake! See yah later Hero! Bye yah Amara!" She dashed off, ponytail flying in the wind as she practically bounced off the ground.

Hero lifted an eyebrow: "Is she like that _all _the time?" He put his arm across Amara's shoulders, guiding her way from the 13 year old's battle with the chomping horse who liked pansies.

Amara laughed, her chocolate eyes dancing over his crystal blue ones. "Yes, fortunately and unfortunately." She crooned, leaning her head against his shoulder. "But she's good that way."

They stopped in front of the soda bar, the smell of sugar sweetness wafted from the open door. Amara smiled, and asked in an innocent voice, "Would you like some ice cream Herodes?"

Hero smiled back, "Why not?" and quickly, darting forward kissed her on the cheek, the air around them shimmered as the sun looked down. They grinned at each other and together they walked in, Hero's heart beating faster than before.

Then their moods changed, fast and drastically as there was a news's reporter on the old TV set and her name was Cinda Spalding. She was talking about a poor village that had just been burnt to a crisp.

Herodes staggered back when he saw the red dragon; shock covering his features. He then turned around and walked out. Amara took one more look at the screen and then followed him.

"I'm leaving." Herodes said flatly, turning to look the black haired woman in the eyes.

"I know, and I'm coming and don't ague with me. If you do I will blow you to kingdom come."

"I honesty believe that….knowing you."

***Fake shock* They have a history??? O.o amazing! I bet you didn't see that coming… ;) (I'm lying, you probably did knowing how see though the plot seems at times)**

**I am happy to say that the plot is finally going to pick up some speed, (yay) and that things are going to get violent (yayyay!) Two weeks (two chapters in FF times) from now, things are going to get a **_**lot more**_** interesting! Not that they weren't before. ;) **

**To give you an idea of the scale in which I am talking think about it this way, take all the drama and tension in the first part of the story (the white dragon getting caught etc etc) and just quadruple that. Yes, that's right. Quadruple that. It's epic. **

**Last weeks riddle answer: Scale (CONGRATS to all that guess correct!)**

**Reviews on Reviews: (please take out spaces) www. brightfrostblog. blogspot. come WARNING! SPOILERS TO LATEST CHAPTER**

**This weeks:**

**The one who makes it sells it.  
The one who buys it doesn't use it.  
The one who's using it doesn't know he's using it.  
What is it? **

**Question: What should the name of this chapter be? The original title was 'Stories' but now it doesn't seem to fit. What should it be?**


	15. Flying Swan

Flying Swan

Swann had recovered from the shock and her brain was back in motion. After another cup of caffeinated tea she had packed her bag. She hauled the bag to the door and left it sitting there. The doctor scanned the room, the laptop was still set up, the clothes were put up, as was the comb and brush.

She had left her necklace out though, a masterpiece, given to her at the day of the "incident". It was gold, large as her index finger. It depicted a flying swan, its graceful neck arched and the wings outstretched, every feather portrayed to perfection. It was on the bed side table where she, no, the fairies had placed it, the night before.

The woman walked over, put on some glasses and gently picked it up, cradling it in her hands like a child, smiling. Then she frowned and grabbed the swan's neck and yanked it down until it was bent. Holding it by its wings she pulled them down too. Holding the body with her left thumb and forefinger she gently pushed up the tail, revealing a square. The USB port slid out with a whisper.

Swan smiled, the backup files. She knew that it would come in handy. It was the best in the businesses, it streamed all the information to the "swan" in under a second, giving her up to date information at a blink of an eye. If she was right it would hold every security video in the building until the moment it was destroyed. It was "nifty" as the intern called it, when she gave it to her.

She slid it into the computer as it hummed to life. A password box popped up, if she got this wrong then all the information would self destructed. Swann tapped the space bar as she went though her "newly" discovered memories before typing in 'doctorswannunwinsswanversion338' and pressed enter.

The laptop hummed as it processed the information and then a file popped up. The file name was 'Swan'. She was in.

After double clicking the file, a window popped up with dates. Scanning to the end she clicked yesterday. Video files popped up, one for every hour from every camera in the entire complex and the security booth.

Painstakingly she went though every move that she, the dragon and Artemis Fowl had made. She watched herself coming in, arguing over the dragon, talking with Fowl, running back, and then getting slammed into the elevator. Swann winced at that. Painful.

She watched the escapee as he raced though the complex, observed him save the fairy's life and then breakup through the big elevator shaft. Switching to security videos she heard the conversation between the dragon and the fairy and then the dragon swoop out of sight….and never appeared again.

The doctor's eyes narrowed, a dragon couldn't just disappear like that. It was physically big, and that mountain's wasn't that large to effectively hide him. She tried another angle; the dragon roared, tucked in his wings and went behind the mountain. Nothing to help her. She looked closer, slowing down the frames until she watched the entire animal fly out of sight.

Then she spotted it; the one mistake, the little oddity. Again she went to another camera, this one was used to watch for government planes and helicopters. It showed the whole side view of the dragon falling behind the mountain and there! Ten seconds later the dragon was gone.

Swann sat back in her seat, first she had tricked the fairies and now she discovered the dragon's secret. It was really that simple. Taking a breath from the steam of her last cup of tea for the day she enjoyed the victory.

Just only for a moment. Uwin yanked out the USB and fixed it until it looked like a swan again, perfect. Sliding the laptop into its case she grabbed her cell phone, then thought better of it. If the fairies were as advanced as she thought they were, they would be monitoring her cell. She picked up the hotel phone and after looking up a number, she dialed.

"Hello this is Flights of American, How many I help you today?" The automated voice asked.

"Yes, I would like the quickest flight out of San Diego."

"And where to?"

**There is not AN in the next chapter for the fact that there is a twist, and best to leave the questions for you to answer.**

**Sorry about missing last week, it was just crazy and when that happened I have the minimize something, and that something was FF for the week. Sorry faithful readers! There is no riddle for the week, I haven't had time. Yes, most of you got the answer right from last week's: A coffin.**

**Read on readers! Find out the secret that I have been harboring for many months!**

**Reviews on Reviews: (Spoilers to latest chapter (yes, even the next)) www. Brightfrostblog. Blogspot .com (take out spaces) **


	16. Ashen Words

Ashen Words

Holly picked her way though the destruction of another town, that was worst than the first one. After landing the shuttle at the first burned site they received a call that another town had been attacked and had hurried over only to see that the action was already long past.

Many of the building where still on fire or smoldering, acrid smoke filled the air. This time the dragon had included the surrounding forest in the massacre. Only the stumps were left, standing reliantly against the fire. Before they had arrived a light rain had come through to purge most of the flames.

Holly looked over to see Artemis crouched over looking at something in the ash. They had to hurry before the residents returned.

"What's that Arty?" The elf said walking over to look.

There was a foot print too large for a human in the ash. It was round and looked very much like a cat's foot print.

He was measuring it with a scanner, "We have our culprit here, it's that dragon again. Not some "amazing" lighting attack."

She crouched next to him and looked. With a sigh she asked: "Do you really think that there are two of them? If there are, why aren't we still looking for the first one?"

Artemis brushed some unruly locks of hair out of his face, "If we look for both we won't find either. I think that it's best if we try to neutralize the one killing everybody. Or would you prefer that he be flying in the skies burning down random towns while we go after the one that's peacefully sitting in some mountain somewhere?" There was a hit of sarcasm in his voice.

"If you're such a genius, do you really think that I'm thinking that?" She replied sharply, looking up at him. Artemis got to his feet and started to scan the remnants of the once thriving village. A strong wind was coming in from the west. The sound of thunder rumbled in the distance. It was coming their way.

"No, no I didn't really think that Holly…I need to find a pattern in the attacks so I can predict were he'll strike next. We better go before the storm breaks." He commented before turning and trudging back to the silver machine.

The fire cracked in a hut, the strong smell of smoke drifted in her nose. It was acidy probably from the plywood that was used to make the structures. Something told her that there was something was here…something that could help them.

"Holly! We need to go before the villagers come back. They already have a dragon to complain about. You want to add fairies to their list?" Foaly asked on the loudspeaker. He had said eariler that he didn't want to get his hooves dirty and because then they would have to pay for a pedicure. Centaur pedicures were more than four month's pay in Holly's pocket.

"Coming!" She replied and dashed back into the shuttle.

A streak of lightening ran across the sky as the door shut and the rain pounded on the roof. The elf strapped herself into the pilot's seat, "Better strap in, this might be rough getting out," She ordered and started the engines.

The shuttle hummed to life as they rose off the black ground. Holly looked one more time at the ground and gasped. There was writing in the ash. From the ground it would look like scratches, but from the air it was easy to make out…for the moment. The rain was wiping the words away.

The elf took a picture and sped above the storm. There was no way to preserve the words, besides taking a picture.

"What's with the gasp Holly?" Foaly asked as he typed on a computer.

The fairy twisted the shuttle as the wind tried to take hold of it. "You'll see in a moment." She said grimy.

In a few minutes they were hovering above the high winds of the storm. Holly showed them the picture.

"Those are words alright, not in gnomish though, but draconic." Foaly replied, "They made up their own language; I don't why they just did. Luckily I studied it before we left. The only problem is it's not based on Gnommish so Holly can't just tell us what it means." Foaly said and zoomed into the first set of symbols. To Holly it looked like a lot of scribbles.

"Now that's L. So…" The centaur started mumbling and writing in a digitized notebook. Artemis pitched in and soon they had a whole phrase in it. They puzzled over the last set of characters and finally gave up until they were back at OPS.

"What do you have right now though?" The captain asked.

Foaly adjusted his foil hat. He had started wearing it again when the dragon appeared. "Well the first part is easy, it's 'Let's finish this' and the last part is this." He said as handed her the notebook with the translated gnommish.

Holly's eyes narrowed as she looked at the word. "You can see that it's a name?" She questioned, "That means that the phase is simple: 'Let's finish this Herodes'…Wonder whoever that is."

**Think again fairy, think again. **

**Review your opinions**

**Artemis, Holly, and Foaly are Eoin Colfer's not mine/ Herodes, the red dragon and the storm is mine.**


	17. Movements

_Movements_

"We need to hurry. The sooner I get out of here the better." Herodes huffed as they dashed up the street. They had stopped by Amara's apartment to grab a few choice things, which were stuffed in the backpack that he was carrying.

Dust was rising behind them as the people stared. Amara had changed into a light t-shirt and cargo pants with many pockets. Her friend had his jacket tied across his hips. They reached the end of the town and stopped to take a breather.

Herodes leaned over breathing heavy, "Which-which way is the quickest to Mexico?"

It took a few breaths for Amara to reply, "Mexico? Ah, flying, trains and buses, but are you an American?"

A boisterous laugh was his reply, "No. No. I just got here maybe 6 days ago, I haven't had time to do anything."

Amara frowned, thinking. They started walking down the beaten hiking road. She didn't have a car and nobody else had one in town. The blue eyed man had said that driving wouldn't be the best thing…if they got pulled over for a speeding neither one of them had driving license they and would be up to their necks in trouble…if they weren't already. A breeze blew though the trees, they rustled in reply as if awaken from sleeping.

"I say that flying is the best option." She said climbing on top of a cracked boulder. A piece fell away and she lost her balance and starting to fall.

"It isn't an option." He shot back, grabbing her hand and pulling her up the boulder, using the backpack for leverage. They lapsed into silence as they hiked over another rocky ridge.

Climbing and slipping together they negotiated over it and she asked: "Why not?"

Hero brushed his hair out of his eyes and sighed. "It won't work. They'll ask for identification which I don't have of course. Even then I don't want to fly, it's not safe. What if somebody sees us? And where _are_ we going?"

Amara climbed over a log that had fallen over the trail. "We're heading south, going to another town where we can get more information on the choices that we have in travel.

"Why didn't we just take some horses? It would be a lot faster and easier."

"And then what? We would get there and then just let the horses loose and say, 'go home horsies!' Granted, they're smarter than most of their kind but not that smart. Plus the fact that the other town would probably get suspicions if we did, you see…not many people know that we are even up here." She said with a look that made Herodes think that she thought he was stupid.

"Fine." He said and they quickly evaporated into quiet, concentrating on the road ahead, only the whispers of nature warning of them of the dangers of the road. They finally reached a long asphalt road and followed it until they came to the town.

It was more like a town than the other one. There were probably more than twenty people living in the apartment buildings. Cars came up and down the streets that were lined with competing stores. People lined the streets, some walking other stopped in groups and talking. Still something in the town made the hairs on the back of Hero's neck rise.

"I don't like it. I would rather walk to the next town than to stay here." He said bluntly as Amara dragged him down the street.

She sighed, "The next town is fifty miles away and I am not going to walk that just because you don't like this one. Come on, let's get something to eat, there's a good burger joint at the end of the street."

Her companion shifted the backpack slightly eyeing everyone of the street, then followed her, "Fine, but then I think that we need to get out of here."

"You haven't changed a bit have you? Still sssstttttuuuuubbbbbboooorrrrnnn." She drew out the last word and smiling grabbed him, "I think that we should just stay here for the night and leave in the morning, I have a credit card."

"Nope we aren't staying the night. We are leaving after this stop." He calmly said and stomped on her foot.

She yelped, "OW! That hurt Herodes! Fine, you know what? Lets talk about this after we have eaten something. I'm not really in the mood to argue. You should agree with me before I do the same thing." And without waiting for his reply, she jumped on top his foot and together they fell onto the sidewalk landing in a pile of legs and arms.

Smiling they extracted themselves from each other and once apart started laughing, their moods lighten. Hero got up and helped his friend to her feet and they walked down the street linking their arms.

"You know what?" Herodes asked quietly resting his head on her shoulder as they rounded the corner. She looked at him with her large brown eyes.

"What?" She whispered back even though there was nobody near by.

"Even though there is a great chance of me dying by next Tuesday and the world is spiraling into demise one thing never changed." He murmured in her ear.

Her grin widened and her eyes sparkled in the dying sunlight, "Really? What is it?"

He spun her around until they were looking straight to each other's eyes, drawing her into his hug he answered in her ear: "How terribly I am in love with you," and gently kissed her on the cheek.

She frowned and drew back, "Oh I knew _that_. But guess what?"

Hero blinked in confusion, he had proclaimed his love for her and now she was drawing back? "What?"

"So I'm I," and kissed him right back, "Shall we go get some food?" They strolled down the street, smiling like goons.

And they stayed that way until the attack.

They were in a remote part of town, with very few people on the streets. Alleys were typical, but people attacking from them wasn't. The person jumped behind them and stabbed Amara with something and grabbing Hero's collar.

His world swirled as his attacker rammed him into the brick building, hitting his head and slicing it open. He staggered forward and tried to break free, blood making his eyes smart. Whoever it was had a strong grip and using their free hand grabbed his hair and yanked hard. Pain streaked though his brain. He gasped but he couldn't breath.

"Stop!" He croaked as he tried to fall to his knees to get out of his constricting shirt. But instead it did the opposite, bruising his airways even more. Again the brick wall veered in his sight, but he stopped it with his hands, black spots dancing around his vision. Hero was fading and he knew it. His fight was leaving him making him weaker and weaker, the lack of air draining his energy. He desperately struggled backwards, hoping to throw the enemy off his guard. It didn't work; instead he got kicked hard in the leg.

The hand let go of his head and forced him to his knees. He got a glimpse of Amara unconscious on the ground with a dart in her shoulder.

Anger erupted in his chest and he thrash until there was a bit of slack and he gasped reviving air. Rejuvenated, he yanked himself to his feet, still weak but better, the foe punched him in the small of his back, causing him to step forward. The person suddenly jumped on his back pulling hard on his shirt and cutting his air off again.

The weight was too much for his exhausted legs and he crumbled. Hero hit his head on the concrete and the world blinked out for a second. He woke up again realizing his hands where being tied behind his back. His forehead throbbed, there was another cut there. He foggily wondered if he would have any blood left.

He contemplated giving in but he didn't want too. He lurched and lifted his head a bit, then he heard string of curse words from a feminine voice. It was a she, something about this was wrong. A hand slammed his head back onto the ground.

"You want to do it the hard way don't you? Well, guess what? I don't." She said and shifted her weight and her hand pressure disappears. She was muttering under her breath. He tried to push off with his chest in order to roll over to at least see his attacker.

She punched him again in between the shoulder blades forcing air out from his lungs. He gasped and she groped at his neck. He tried to shake her off. She slapped him and then finding what she wanted she plunged in the needle.

He jolted and the woman held his head down until the drug was completely injected. It was too late and he knew it. She got off of him, and the shot started to work.

His mind stared to drift, bubbling off. He was sleepy, and his assassin gently pushed him over onto his back. And a face appeared in his sight. A wicked smile was on it. Her dark brown hair spiraled around her face. He gasped and the blood drained from his face.

"Hello the dragon…you might to remember me…?" She asked sweetly. He just glared. "Ah, I guess that you don't, well, I am Swann, Doctor Swann Unwin and you are mine." Then blackness covered him.

**Some how I have nothing to say but this famous phase...**

**_"From the frying pan and into the fire"_**

**R&R **

**What's going to happen?**

**Riddle: What asks no question but demands an answer?**


	18. Fire by Ice

Fire by Ice

Pain broke though his thoughts like a lighthouse slicing though a foggy night. Hero's throbbing head woke him and made him aware of every hurting part of his body. He winced, he felt like his head was going to explode and his side was on fire. He was still sleepy and it was hard to concentrate on one idea.

Herodes was on his side, arms tied behind his back. His hands were burning as well, probably from whatever sort of cuff was holding him back. A rushing sound registered in his brain, a car, he was in a car by the sounds of it. The hum of the motor, the whirl of the tires and the sound of passing cars persisted in his ears.

He opened his eyes. He was under something. Light was flittering though the dark material, the moon he rationalized vaguely. Hero felt someone lying next to him. They went over a bump and his head was thrown up and then fell back down jarring his brain even further. A hollow gasp left his scorched lips as they continued forward to some unknown destination. It must be Amara, he thought hazily, as the form knocked into him as they went of over another bump this time he barely kept his skull from crashing into the car.

There was nothing he could do; he cursed himself for being so careless. He should have kept his guard up for things like this. He shifted slightly trying to throw off the cover and rapidly regretted it, his side was bruised heavily and just the tiniest movement sent another wave of stinging to his already sore head.

Again, he slipped into the depths of unconsciousness, falling further away from the world and into the pit of blackness; drowning him, muffling his cries, obscuring his struggles, enveloping him with icy hands. It filled him with anguish and hopelessness until he stopped struggling and sank into the darkness that pulled him beyond the reach of the surface and consciousness.

Something grabbed his shirt and forcefully yanked him awake. Hero gasped as he was showered with freezing water that jolted him wake. His eyes flew open as drops of water flecked his eyelashes, his hair sticking up in different directions. The first thing in his line of sight was the doctor, who was glaring at him.

Her hair was yanked in a ponytail and she sported a light grey jacket and a pair of dark jeans. Hero could have sworn that she was trying to drill into in head with her glare. His hands were tied behind the back of the chair head, the man dully realized. He averted his gaze from the woman, mumbling, "You're crazy."

A naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling was the only light besides the moon streaming in through a spider cracked window on the far wall. There was a stuffy smell in the air, like a house that hadn't been lived in for a while. Bare and beaten down uneven wood floor boards with every other one sticking up make Hero's chair rock.

There was a desk in the window corner, its light spilled onto the table and the floor. A chair was sitting next to it; on the desk was a laptop and some wrappers. His chair was huddled in the middle of the room; another was sitting a bit of distance from that. Amara was tied to that one, her head drooping into her chest. A knot formed in his chest. This was his fault.

Swann smiled and replied, "Oh good you're awake, we can have a quick talk." She walked to him and pulled over the chair by the desk, its legs practically screaming on the floor. Hero tried his bonds while she had her back turned; they were strong, too strong for him. For some reason why do I doubt that this will be quick talk? He though bitterly as Unwin sat back in her chair her hands folded neatly on her lap.

He still hurt, his head was injured that was for sure. The rest of his body was numb which was probably a good thing.

Her face got serious and she said, "Now, why don't you just admit that you're the dragon that I had and we can go on from there. How does that sound?"

Herodes sighed, shifting slightly in his seat and answered in a stranded voice, "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not any stupid dragon. Now could you let me go?"

A smile lit her features and her eyes glowed with a scary sheen, "You're lying dragon. I know that you are him… you're a shapeshifter."

He blinked, something about the doctor made him so nervous that he wanted to bust. "Why do you keep calling me 'dragon'? I _told _you that I am not a mythical creature. My name is Herodes, most people call me Hero though. Really I have things that I need to be doing, my friend here needs to come too." He hurried though the five sentences hoping that she would realize that he wasn't that creature.

"You're still lying." Was the calm counter.

Hero squirmed in his bondage wishing he could get out of the way of this seemingly crazy woman. "Look, I know that there are a lot of amazingly good writers out there that make great books. But you must realize that is fantasy not reality, I am not a dragon. Please, some things just aren't, even though we wish they were they aren't. _Please _let me go!" He said coolly, some of his nervousness was transferring into fear and some of that into anger.

Trying to keep his voice under control he continued, "I have to go, I need to go home, meet some people that are waiting for me"-Mexico wasn't his home but he had a better chance of getting home from there so it wasn't a lie-" I'll pay you, you name your price and if it's possible I'll do it."

"I want you to stop lying to me, your home isn't Mexico, it's Europe, and there is no such person in the USA called 'Herodes' on paper, so you are an alien. But I have reason to believe that you're more likely to be government property. Maybe if you stop lying and _start _cooperating now, your friend might not be killed."

"I told you. I. am. Not. A. Dragon. And you must have overlooked the files because I should be in there." He hissed.

"Oh yes, I forgot, I did rule out one 'Herodes'." She replied and leaning forward she drew a yellowed brittle piece of paper. She smiled sweetly as she drew out a pair of glasses making Hero's heart drop. Squinting she looked over the document, examining it with a critical eye as if she was looking for flaw.

Swann Unwin looked up at him with brown almost black eyes. Somehow she locked glazes with him, "This is his birth certificate." That confirmed his fear.

She leaned back in the chair, it squeaked in protest, his glaze dropped; blue eyes scanned the floor as she read it out in an almost conversational tone:

"Herodes, oh how funny_ no _last name, they must have forgotten that part. Born on June 27th at 12:59 P.M with a mere _second_ before the next day, how funny that he was born on that last second. He was born in the year 1970 oh! My mistake, I read that wrong, my I need new glasses. No, it says Mr. No-Last-Name was born in _1700_. This is funny isn't it? Since the American Constitution wasn't even around back then. Huh. So I did a bit more digging into this Herodes person. There is _no_ death certificate, that means that there is a man walking around in a America today that is 309 years old, doesn't own any property what so ever and hasn't done anything with a bank accounts until a day ago."

She leaned forward until he could feel her breath on his skin. "Do you know who went to that ATM and took out the money? Funny because you're the one on the video, there was a ton of money in that account, about three billion dollars worth. Boy that seems enough for a _dragon's_ hoard doesn't it? Well you-sorry no, this three hundred and nine year old man took out four hundred dollars. Guess how much I found in your pocket? _Three hundred_ ninety _five dollars_ and _twenty five_ cents, funny how that almost perfectly matches up with what that old man drew out. I think that I have a match. Do you know what? I went a bit further. There was a very famous man who lived in China in the 1400's; do you know when he was born?"

Hero kept quiet.

Swann smiled victoriously, "This man was born in June 27th, another shocker isn't it? A better shocker was the man's name, he was fondly called '_Dragon_'s Fire' because of what he did to their society at the time, 'burning' what they had back then, a metaphor of course. His name was Herodes as well, which really means _The Fire Dragon. _ Amusing isn't it? Do you know something else? Let me read some of the writing about him shall I?"

She leaned back and drew another piece of paper, Hero eyed her warily, wondering what was next.

"'ήρωας καφέ μαλλιά , μάτια χρώμα του ουρανόs , σοφός όπως βουνά δράκος του άνθρωποι. αυτόs ευγενικός , δικός του δίκαιοs και χρώμα του διαμάντια , παλαιόs όπως ώρα , τέσσερα αυτοκράτορας ήρθα και επιβάτης. ήρωας μετέφερα καθένας του καινούργιος αυτοκράτορας ψηλός στο ουρανόs διδασκαλία αυτούς σοφία και για πολλοί πράγμα να έρθει. μία μέρα the διαμάντι χρώμα δράκος πέταξα μακριά και ποτέ επιστροφή'." Herodes winced; her accent was all over the place. "Sorry, I don't speak _Greek_ very well. I guess some things just aren't meant to be. I think you know what it means…don't you?"

Hero leaned back as far as he could in the chair, trying to get away from her piercing glaze. "No, I don't know Greek."

"Really? I think that you're lying. It doesn't matter though, this tale was brought down though the trade from China and was translated into Greek and I spent some time and transiated it into English. It's a bit rough since they forgot a few words in the original scripture." Sitting the Greek paper and the Birth Certificate down and she drew a tiny notebook from a pocket.

"_Herodes brown haired, eyes the color of the sky, wise as the mountains, the dragon of the people. He was kind, his skin fair and color of diamonds, old as time, four emperors came and passed. Herodes carried each of the new emperors high to sky teaching them wisdom and about many things to come. One day the diamond colored dragon flew off and never returned."_

That was a dramatic exit wasn't it? Filled with mystery, I couldn't find anything more of this person until the certificate. Admit it, you are the Herodes and you are over seven hundred years old. You match the description, 'brown haired, eyes the color of sky, fair skin'. I matched your eyes color with the dragon's we had in the lab. A perfect match. Stop lying to my face…dragon."

The man shook his head slowly and then replied, "Look it's just a crazy coincidence. My mother liked this Herodes person and she studied him all her life"-Unwin cut him off.

"You don't have a mother on the Birth Certificate or a father."

"You know what? Just shut up, that is not my paper. I have a mother and a father, I am an American Citizen. I just took the test a few days ago, now LET ME GO!" Herodes slipped over into edge into anger, his eyes narrowing, alight with fire.

Swann stood, towering over him and yelled: "YOU'RE LYING! Lying I tell you! You have cost me everything I have worked for. All my life's work as been erased away from everybody I know. It's all your fault! I'm sick of it! You are the key to getting it back."

Drawing himself as high he could in a sitting position he snapped back like a chained angry dog. "I don't know what you are talking about! I am Herodes, I am human! Can't you see that? I am sitting right in front of you! Can't you see that?"

"Can't you just admit the truth!"

"How can you be sure that I am somebody that I am not?" He snarled.

Unwin stepped back from him, rolling her eyes. "Oh I have more proof, more than you can image. Now tell me, how did you get that scar on your back?" She smiled as his faced drained of color.

"Wh-what scar?" He asked quietly, his voice suddenly cold as ice.

She smiled again, and replied in mock surprise, "Oh? You didn't know? Here let me shed some light on that." She walked over to him and easily ripped the shirt off his back sending pain jarring to his head. He barely kept back a groan, biting his tongue instead.

"You didn't know that you had a full six inches of stitches running down your back?" She asked sweetly as she walked over and carried something big from a box hidden in the shadows.

He felt a prick of sweat on his brow as he realized what was going on. The woman returned with a mirror. She set it up in front of him so he could look into the mirror behind him that was reflecting his back.

There it was, a horrid black line running down his spine, along the fine prominent muscles in his back. He could see it though the chair back. A closer look and he could see the stitches themselves, running from his shoulder blades to his mid back. The skin was slightly red around it, but it looked like the wound was almost healed.

The doctor crossed behind him and inspected them, "Amazing how much they have healed since we put them in, almost time for them to fall off. That salve we used really did work. You healed faster than we thought." She ran a finger down the wound sending prickles of pain to his brain and the hairs on the back of his neck rose in a warning.

"Huh. Now how do you explain _that._" She said as she suddenly pinched a raised area about the size of a pencil between his shoulders. He gasped and instinctively cringed, seeing in the mirror a bead of blood ooze from the area.

She looked at her fingers which were red, "Oops, I didn't see that coming," she replied sarcastically, "Now your answer?"

He replied in a husky voice, "Surgery…I had a spinal operation, they put that in my back so I would be able to walk."

"I think otherwise. We did an operation on the dragon that we had. It would be about this size, it was so we could keep track of him if he ever escaped our care. How else did you think that I found you? You have a tracker in your back, if you tried to remove it yourself, it would have been deadly since it is right next to your spinal cord. Cut that and you're crippled. Quite brilliant, don't you think?" She continued to trace the wound, every touch sent shivers down his back.

"You're crazy, I told you. It is a spinal operation." He continued calmly.

Swann stood and strolled over to look him in the eyes, "You still don't believe me? I did DNA samples of your blood compared to his. Do you know what it said?"

Again Herodes had enough, he stood, pain streaming in his ears, he looked her in the face and yelled: "I am not this dragon! How many times do I have to tell you! I A-M N-O-T A D-R-A-G-O-N! Period! No more! The End! No more to say! Done! Gone!" Something buzzed in the back of his head, he resisted.

She screamed right back: "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! WHY CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND I AM NOT DANGEROUS EXCEPT TO YOU AND THE ONLY REASON FOR THAT IS BECAUSE YOU YOU'RE TORTURING ME!" He growled lowly in his chest as a dark smile crossed over his face.

A shiver when through the man before his bonds shattered into pieces. The rope fell to the ground, as Herodes, the white dragon, transformed into his true form. Wings sprouting from his back like seeds breaking the surface of the Earth.

His skin shimmered as it turned into the diamond colored scales, horns breaking though his head as it lengthened. He stood there in front of the doctor, crouching since the ceiling was to low.

Fangs smiled as they looked at Swann before a roar exited. It shook the ground, its volume could be heard for blocks around. The residents of the area didn't even think, they started running away from the sound, screaming, all except Unwin who stood there defiantly.

"The truth comes out." She replied calmly. "That won't scare me away."

Fury took over the dragon's mind, pushing logical to the side and the next minutes he was seeing red. The building he was in was burning brightly around him. Herodes was breathing deeply as fire flicker around his nose and mouth and blood speckled his lips and chest. He didn't know whose blood it was.

He heard a crack and suddenly the floor gave way into the basement. He threw himself forward and grabbed Amara still tied to the chair in his mouth. He landed on his side on the floor and was quickly covered with debris. Hitting, bruising, bashing into his scales.

He struggled as he dug to the top of the pile, breathing hard, around the woman in his mouth. Drained, he wondered how much longer he could continue at this furious pace.

Carefully he transferred Amara to his paw and he looked around him as he prepared to leave the collapsing building. There, in the corner framed in fire was another life form stirring, he paused. He winced in regret; there was nothing that he could do with out risking his own life. He was fireproof but he was not "collapsing building proof". Best to let nature take its course, he thought as he jumped to what was left of the floor above and breathing out deeply destroying the ceiling and roof with fire. With one more look down he jumped though the hole and soared into the cool sky. Herodes circled the building once before looking down to see the police, fire crew and in the corner a squad of fairies.

This is going to be a _long_ night he thought.

**Happy birthday my dear Herodes!**

**It is true, Herodes **_**is **_**the white dragon. Only one of you came close to the answer to the mystery, there was one clue that you read over. In the first chapter and in the lab scenes I never gave **_**the white dragon **_**a name. **

**Review! Review! Review! :D**

**BF**

**Answer to last week's: Life**

**This week's: **No legs have I to dance,  
No lungs have I to breathe,  
No life have I to live or die  
And yet I do all three.  
What am I?

(good luck! This is the hardest yet! Clue (clarification), it dances, breathes, lives and dies)


	19. Wings that Flew

_**Wings that Flew**_

All these days consist of is running from one place to another, living off energy bars and playing worldwide tag with dragons, Holly thought crossly as she flew the shuttle to another location that Foaly had pinpointed.

The centaur was sitting in OPS in his little chair just watching the action from the plasma screen, probably eating a carrot. Artemis was sitting in the co-pilot chair looking ahead; he had refused to sit with the rest of the crew in the room beyond. Clearly he didn't want to sit with the retrieval jocks that thought that goofing around and punching each other in shoulder was a form of communication. She didn't blame him, they were jerks with muscle.

She was heading into a near by town where there was "freak" fire going on. Supposedly the house had just burst into flame with reports of the sounds of something big moving around ripping it apart. Sounded enough like a dragon to Foaly that he had shoved them all in the shuttle and set them on their way.

"This is the third time that we have gone to a fire, and he wasn't there. Tell me why are we going to this one?" She asked outloud even though she knew the answer.

Artemis sighed, "I don't think I need to answer that." He said as he pointed out the window. That wasn't the answer she was looking for.

There was the fire, blazing high into the sky, the old house was shaking and as if on cue part of the roof collapsed, making an even higher blaze. The house was almost as burnt as the piece of toast Holly had a few mornings ago, brittle and black as coal. Even from within the shuttle they could hear the sirens of fire trucks that whizzed below them. The house was big enough to house a dragon safely, it was an old run down mansion.

"Wow. That's the biggest fire that I have seen today. Maybe we're onto something." Holly replied as she swooped into an alley and parked. Their new shuttle was able to look like a car so they could park easily, though they often forgot to feed the meter, which caused problems. Sometimes the easiest thing was to mesmerize the angry policeman and zoom off.

Quickly the men in the back fell silent as they looked out the windows and into the outer world. Holly took off her seatbelt and pushed a button that opened the door in the back. It slid open silently and the shielded fairies walked out, their guns glinting in the light of the fire.

Artemis emerged from the "car" using the "door" with an invisible fairy squad next to him. A roar could be heard from between the cracks and the angry cries of the house, as another part of the house crashed in on itself. Sparks flew in every direction like snow on a blustery winter day.

The fire chief talked to another fireman and Holly heard him say: "We're too late, the house is gone. I can't risk any of my men in there. It's a ticking time bomb, maybe five minutes at the most before the whole thing comes crashing down on itself. Nothing can survive that; anybody in there is probably cooked to a crisp with all that heat by now. Start wetting down the houses around it before we try anything on the house itself. I heard it was abandoned so there shouldn't be anybody in it."

Artemis agreed though his antishield glasses, "I agree with the man, there is nothing…"A rumble came from the building and everybody froze. A part of the building broke away and something shot into the sky. Holly whirled around to see the white dragon swoop quickly around the building once. He rose from the hot air, each flap raising him higher and higher. Soot covered his scales so he appeared nearly black in the dying light of the sun.

Then the creature looked up and gazed straight at her, almost freezing her in place. His wing flapped and whirled away, as he did she saw he was carrying something in his hand, a human. Was he one of those dragons that kidnapped and ate human women?

She shook her head, "I better try to track him down, and why do I feel like is going to be difficult?" she wondered and revved up the engines. The muscles around her followed the lead, revving up their wings with some noise, which couldn't be heard because of the fire.

Holly rolled her eyes and shot into the air, leaving a plum of air in Artemis eyes, ruffling his hair. She barely heard his voice: "Hit him with a tracking pill if you can, you won't be able to catch him when he doesn't want to be caught. I think this is one of those times."

The people around the area were screaming their head off running; they didn't even realize that the "beast" was gone.

Holly zoomed over the fire, the heat of it was amazing, but soon she was far way from it. The dragon was still ahead of her. She wouldn't be beaten by a dragon; he looked scorched, even though he didn't act like it. She gritted her teeth as she sped faster, leaving the others behind.

The dragon looked back and the fairy saw the dried blood on his chest, neck and mouth. She almost pulled back; it looked like the human was dead in his hand. He had killed her.

"What have you done?" She yelled into the mike, her words roaring into the air.

The dragon slowed for a second and turning his head to look at her and replied calmly: "It wasn't my fault," then turned and continued on.

The LEP captain wanted to growl back at the dragon, of course it was his fault, the human's blood was all over his chest. "Liar!"-He flinched at this word-"How are we supposed to cover up this death?" she exclaimed.

"I already took care of that. The evidence is long since gone. I am leaving." The dragon replied.

Holly's cheeks flushed, "What about the body? Your not going anywhere until we get this cleared up."

The dragon stopped in midair. He whirled around wings spread wide and ominous. Holly barely had time to pull up right in front of him, suddenly she felt very small against his twenty foot wingspan. There was glare of annoyance in his eyes that made her feel even smaller. The moon was against his back, spreading his shadow onto her. A knot formed in her chest as a fact rose its way to the surface of her mind. Just as quickly as he had saved her life back in the lab, he could now take it away.

He glowered over her and she realized what sort of power she was arguing with. This white creature might be the strongest creature on the face of the Earth and she was trying to pick a fight with it? That was bad news.

He seemed to hover there a second before replying, "The body is probably going to be burned, now I have to go do something about that idiot, Skarn. Good bye." He said firmly. Holly realize that he meant it.

He whirled around, blustering her aside, and with a quick snap of his teeth he made for a mountain range with quick flaps. She didn't have time to react before she was buffeted away like a piece of wood on a wave.

He's mad she thought, as she regained control of her wings, I have to be careful unless I want to end up in his other hand. She shook her head before quickly joining in pursuit, drawing her gun, taking Artemis' advice. He wouldn't get caught if he didn't want to be.

She loaded the tiny pill into the gun. It wouldn't hurt him and he might not even notice it in his current mood. Hopefully he would understand later, she thought and shot. From what she could tell, it hit. But she followed him anyway.

He swooped behind another mountain and she hurried to catch his disappearing act. Too late she thought as she swooped around the peek. The mountain and the forest looked up at her concealing the dragon. She sighed and quietly turned and flew back. There was nothing she could do for the human who was probably being eaten.

***

What Holly didn't see was the human crouching under a tree, ash covering every inch of him. His blue eyes watched carefully as the fairy flew off. He clutched Amara's burnt form to his chest. Gently he set her down on the ground and wiped some of the blood from his face. The injury on his forehead had broken open.

His bruised fingers touched her face lovingly, then he placed them on her slowly rising and falling chest. In a struggling and weak voice murmured a spell. Red sparks flew off his fingers, healing her burns, bones, wiping closed the cut on her arms and head. Soon the damage was healed and he moaned and collapsed as her eyes fluttered open.

"H-h-Hero?"

***

Artemis watched in amazement as the fireman stumbled from the burning building. His clothes were black with soot. Another man ran forward and took the woman from his hands, while a friend helped keep the other human's footing. He could hear the man say in a shaking voice: "I knew that she was in there. I knew it. She's really hurt though. I knew she was there. I knew it." He kept repeating that to himself as they lead him to some oxygen.

Fowl walked over to the ambulance. It made sense now, Swann had found out this dragon's secret and had tracked him down and simply made him mad. Amazing. Now he and the fairies needed that secret.

They had her on a stretcher, and Artemis didn't even want to go near it. Even without a doctor's degree he knew that there was nothing they could do so save her life. She was still alive, though barely.

He walked over and a police man stopped him, and put a hand on his shoulder "Sorry, she needs to go to the hospital."

He looked up at the man and replied: "I am Artemis Fowl. I have a Ph.D. I am a doctor. I suggest if you want her to live let me though."

The man moved aside, and Artemis increased his pace. He nodded to the medics that had overheard in the conversation between him and the police officer. They back off so he could examine her. Artemis barely looked at the wounds; he looked the doctor in the eyes and said evenly, "Doctor? Swann wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open at her name, "Yes, there you go." He continued and then in a quieter tone asked, "Tell me the secret to the dragon and I try my best to get you to the doctor alive."

A moaning sound came from her lips as she tried to form words. Again she tried, this time he extracted three words, "Dragon…changes…shape." He nodded and quickly tried to patch her up enough for the trip to the hospital, his mind whirring with this new information. He watched as they loaded her into the ambulance and he knew she wasn't going to make it even though he had tried to save her.

He nodded, if he'd had a hat he would have taken it off, in farewell to the brilliant doctor who had also broken though the code of the fairies, but in the end was less fortunate than him.

**AN: Sorry about the wait! My life has been crazy and I am trying to get back on my feet with my writing (this story has been finished and I have been very lazy). **

**I had to do it with Swann, she was a loose end that needed to be tied up...fast. **

**I would really like to break the hundred mark with this chapter on reviews...**

**Who is 'Skarn' by the way? (see talk between Holly and Herodes).**

**It is time to allow my drawings of Herodes to surface, as with all my dragons I draw them to make them as real as possible for myself and you. Thus here is the link to the drawings and some of my other works.**

www. brightfrostsart. blogspot. com (copy and paste and then take out spaces)

**What do you think?**

**See yah Next Friday! **

**Brightfrost**

**Last week's riddle answer: Fire (there were a really clever answers though!)**

**This week's: What English word retains the same pronunciation, even after you take away four of it's five letters?**


	20. Clashing Factors

**_Clashing Factors_**

"Tell me, why didn't I know about the dragons when I first researched The People?" Artemis asked as he relaxed in the co-pilot seat. They were waiting for an hour to pass. Artemis had estimated that it would be best to check in on the dragon after he was finished cooling off, unless LEP wanted the possibility to be fried.

His elfin friend was settled in the chair across from him, listening to Mudman music on what was an advanced version of an iPod. She raised an eyebrow and popped out an earpiece.

"What now?" she asked offhand, changing the music on the paper thin piece of metal.

Artemis sighed and repeated the question, "Why weren't dragons on the database when I hacked into it the first time?"

"Oh, that." She said, studying the screen and avoiding his eyes. "We wiped all the dragon files from the LEP database about three hundred years ago. There was only one back up; it was stuffed in the back of one of Foaly's 'storage' units, more like a trash can when I looked in there." She scoffed.

Artemis opened his mouth but Holly beat him to it, "I know your next question, Artemis: 'Why did you wipe them from the records?' It's simple, genius. When we moved below ground there was no room for dragons. They were forced to stay on the surface and deal with humans. They were trapped. This went on for years, the Mudmen started hunting down the dragons for sport. Then suddenly we lost all contact with them. We tried to look for them, but they were just gone. Poof! Caves, houses, nobody was home, it seemed like they had vanished. We looked for years until we gave up and just erased them from the database just assuming that they were dead. I guess we were wrong."

"Interesting…" He replied, leaning back even further in the fairy sized chair, "And now they just pop right back into existence." They sank into silence, the elf stared out the windshield deep in her own thoughts. Artemis furrowed his brow, trying to form the big picture. After a while he realized he was missing half of the pieces.

"What do we know about the dragon's society?"

She started; he had disrupted her train of thought. "The dragon's society?" She drummed her fingers as she tried to remember the briefing that Foaly had given her.

"Surprisingly not much," she confirmed, "They kept their customs and events to themselves. They did mingle with the People but…I don't know. It was different then any of the other races. It was sort like oil and water with the two of us." She ended perplexed as she fingered the music player.

"You hated each other?" Artemis interrogated.

Holly shook her head, "No, not at all, we just didn't mingle with each other much, that's all. They always seemed to be…I don't know; guarded or edgy or maybe just wary. Not of us, but something else. They were friendly. You must realize that I have never seen a dragon in my life besides now. I've only seen videos and things like that."

The Mudman sat up, selecting a piece of information and going with it, "Wary of something else? Anything else?"

Holly thought about it for a minute, "No, they are the top predator, if they wanted to be. Humans were somewhat of a problem, even when they were being hunted. They seemed to be relaxed, when something happened they would get up and move or confront the problem peaceful manner. Only on a rare occasion did they decide to be violent about something, and when that happened, they were quick and lethal. That almost never happened though."

"What else? Besides the humans, was there anybody else who could be a reason to disappear?"

"No."

"Anything unusual that they do? Maybe something that nobody gets to see?" He asked, the chair squealing under the pressure.

The elf squirmed in her chair, digging back in her brain, "There was a meeting of all the dragons. It was about every nine hundred years and no fairy was let in. But at the end, a wave of sparks would travel around the globe before dispersing. Red sparks, that's what their magic color was, not green or blue like ours."

"Every 900 years? Every exact nine hundred years or did it vary? Do you know how long each dragon lives?"

Captain Short thought for a second and slowly replied to each question, "Yes, exactly. No, our best guess is around is over two thousand years, but since the Mudmen like to go around and kill them nobody really knows. The dragons didn't exactly write a 'Dragon's Life' book, Artemis. They liked to keep their secrets and we respected that. What we know is from observing from afar."

"I know that, Holly. I want to know what is known. Was nine hundred years since the last meeting when they all disappeared?"

A frown crossed Holly's face. "No, it was probably a thousand or so."

The man's face mimicked the fairy's as he sat back in the chair; this wasn't the answer that he wanted to hear. Holly studied him, watching his blue eyes as he tried to piece together the puzzle. After a while she sighed, tired of the mysteries, and asked: "What are you thinking?"

Artemis's eyes darted to meet hers, "Why should I tell you? You might get _scared_."

"I think I'll take my chances. Spill."

Arty frowned at the choice of her words. "I am thinking that somehow this secret meeting and this sudden disappearance of the dragons are connected. There is also the issue of the other dragon. The white told us that he had to "deal" with the other one. This means that the red wants revenge on the white. By the looks of it, the red wants the white's blood. The only way he thinks he can do this is by destruction, trying to provoke him. Which, by my guess, is working."

Holly nodded, "But why? Why does he want his blood? And what does this have to do with the disappearances?"

"Why does he want his blood? It probably has something to do with this meeting. They must have met and crossed lines? What this had to do with the disappearances only one of the dragons will be able to tell us. Since they are all shape-shifters, if they just wanted to disappear they could've transformed into humans and there is your perfect, as you call it, 'poof!'. I highly doubt it though. Why would they want to wipe their kind from the Earth if they have nothing to fear?"

Again they lapsed into silence, fumbling in the dark to find the answer to their questions, falling into holes of confusion, and waiting for something to light the way to the end. The answer to their questions. Today just wasn't the man and fairy's day.

*******

"Are you crazy? You just left them behind? They could have helped us and you refused? Please tell me, Herodes, why did you do that?" Amara snapped. She was perched on a large rock in their newly found cave.

She must be feeling better, Herodes thought bitterly as his friend snapped a whole list of words that he didn't even bother to register. He sighed. Women were something else. He would take on anybody's wrath if it meant that he didn't "get it" from Amara, minus out a certain red dragon.

While he was out she had moved both of them to a nearby cave. After a minute of recovery she had forced him to tell everything that had happened. She wasn't happy with the story, not one bit.

"I told you, I was tired and they were questioning me about the death of Swann. I didn't want to talk about it. You know I hate it when that happens. I just wanted to be left alone and now I want to be left alone." He replied calmly, attempting to shield away the angry human from the rock he was sitting on.

She hopped down from the rock and stood in front of him. "You could have let them help us! You know you can't do anything. You'll die, and then what?" she pushed a finger into his shoulder.

The man looked down on the projectile sadly, and replied in a whisper, "Then nothing. That's what. Nothing. Blankness. My life will be over. The end."

Changing back and forth in forms drained the dragon. Yes, he could do it as many times as he needed to…but he paid the price later. It ate all his energy and sapped away his strength. His hair fell in his face but he was too tired to push it way, instead looking up at her though the bars of his own hair, his own personal cage. Amara didn't seem to notice the reaction.

Putting her hands on her hips she snapped at him, "What about everybody else, huh? What about them? You must realize that we can't do this on our own, it's not going to be pride or anything else but it is going to be about surviving. I am sorry to say this but you're not up to par on that. We just barely made it though. '_Barely' _I said, Herodes,"-She softened, went on one knee, took one of his hands, and murmured, "'Barely'."

She looked into his eyes, but he blinked and looked away; studying the wall of their shelter, his voice turned rough and grizzly with weariness, "I never chose this. I never wished for this…"

His voice collapsed under the weight of silence. His head dug into his chest, and his hands came up to his face, her copper hand coming up with it.

Amara sat down next to the white dragon. She buried him in a hug. Herodes leaned into her and the woman smiled with as much confidence as she could muster.

"All will turn out well, my beautiful white dragon. All will be okay, we'll make it…together."

Her words comforted his thoughts and soon he was asleep deep inside Amara's tender embrace.

**A/N**

**I AM BACK!**

**Woot!! To make a long story short my editor left for another state for a vacation, and then I never got back to it that summer. THEN school came in. THEN I became swamped. AND THEN it was just insane. I finished the story, stuffed in the back of a folder and it started to collect dust. I puttered around with other fanfictions but never got anything done. **

**One day, my best friend Icetail** **said, "Hey I love to edit and I want you to finish the 9th Race!" I replied, "Really????" and a couple weeks later we got started. The hiatus was good, if you noticed the dialogue is much better (I went at it with an axe) and the details were added and subtracted as needed.**

**If things go well, The 9th Race will update every Friday as it always has.**

**Thanks for the support,**

**Brightfrost**

**I got you a good riddle this time! I like this one because, 1. its hard and 2. it deals with (basically) everything, and this chapter has mostly revealed all the pieces in this story. Now they just have to be fit together...**

Riddle**: I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. Yet, I surround every place. What am I?**

**Review with your answers**

**last chapter's riddle answer: queue**


	21. Internal Struggles

_**Internal Struggles**_

Amara watched the entrance of the cave; they would go by any minute. Half-hidden behind an oak tree she watched the sky carefully for any movement, fingering the pill that she had found on Hero's back. It was morning; the sun was quickly soaring into the sky, painting as it went.

The birds were praising the great fireball with their songs. Voices whirled around in the woman's head as she attempted to collect her thoughts. Herodes was still sleeping. When light started to trickle into the cave she had let go of her friend to watch out for fairies. Vividly, she could see his face without worry for the first time since she could remember.

A breeze danced along her neck and ears, the smell of greenery and dampness dashing along with it. She wanted to talk to the People before Herodes did. She would sort out the misunderstanding between them before he started to move his coffin in to the hole that he already dug.

"Why doesn't he just want to get it over with? Why does he feel the urge to flee when he knows what the future holds? The sword is still sharp, the arena is ready, the flags still flutter, and the armor is polished: why doesn't he just take the breath and engage?" She whispered to herself, picking her way up the cliff. A smirk came over her face as realized how ridiculous her metaphor was: a sword? Armor? Flags? Ha. Hardly.

"Blood is to be shed, but who will it be? Hero's? Skarn's? Is he afraid of death? Pain perhaps?" She continued, "Was there even a competition on who's the winner from the start?" Her eyes scanned the sky imagining all the different answers; even though somewhere inside she knew the true one. Seconds passed before anything happened. No response came from the song birds in the sky. The sun remained quiet. The breeze summoned itself and whispered something illegible in her ear.

Shaking her head, she climbed on until she was above cave mouth. She stood back, scanning the horizon. She unconsciously traced the tattoo on her hand, the black swirls easily flowing to and fro like wisps of smoke. The deep black had a red hue to it, and as the sun rested on the mark the red sparkled though the dark…like magic.

The dark lines outlined something more than a wisp of smoke but of a dragon, though to Amara it meant more than that, even as the smoke and magic started to whirl around her. Her feathered wings broke though the tornado of magic as the dragon transformed into her true form.

***

The white dragon stirred, instinctively wrapped around a boulder in the back of the cave. While asleep he had drifted back into his true form. He drew in his pearl wings trying to avoid waking up, but even in his sleepy state he knew that it wasn't going to happen.

Cracking an eye open he scanned the cave and realized where he was. A moan escaped Hero's lips and he hugged the rock more. Swann was dead and Skarn was still alive and kicking. After a minute of moping he roused himself to his feet. His scales scratched the floor and he stretched. The dampness of the cave clogged his nostrils with its intensity. It was homely scent that reminded him of the days of innocents.

His brothers and sister would wake him up every morning and together at their ungainly pace they would race to the mouth of the cave and gawk at the sun as it rose. Tussling, playing, learning and flying. The simple life. Eating, sleeping, breathing, living. The biggest worry back then was if tomorrow was going to bring rain. Herodes paused as he was overwhelmed with memories of his younger days, a dramatic difference to his days now on this earth.

Shaking his head he continued forward, using his acute smell to track Amara's scent. It was sweeter than the others, sharper and stronger in his mind. Padding forward he stopped when he saw something in the corner of his eyes. The dragon stopped and realized that there was his breakfast, lying on the ground. A smile broke on his face; Amara knew what he liked best…venison.

Quickly, the meat was sitting happily in his stomach. That would hold him for a week or so; it was amazing how much a little bit a food could last for him. Eating once a week let the ecosystem around him stay put, one animal a week wouldn't put that much of a dent in the forest. Licking his chops Hero enjoyed the lingering taste before resuming his journey to the surface.

He stopped by a large underground lake, realizing how perfect this was for the two of them; food, forest, water, caves, and probably a good view. He looked at his refection, blue eyes staring back into his, white scales glimmering in the dull light. Concern spread across his face. Would there ever be a day when he would be able to settle down? He wanted invite Amara to live here with him for eternity, forever. To fly in the sky, to be able to lay side by side, watch the sunrise, hunt together and maybe even raise his own clutch.

He could almost see the little dragons playing and swimming, Amara watching over them with a loving eye. Then he was looking back at his own miserable face in the water. A daydream, something that could never happen. He could never have a family without fear. He could never take Amara as his without fear. He could never even claim this cave as his without fear. Fear that it would all be destroyed. It could never happen. Never, impossible, a hurtful fantasy. A fantasy that had drove an invisible barbed knife into his already aching heart.

A tear rippled the reflection, disturbing the face, deforming it, changing it before settling back into its form. His wretched face, never blinking, stared back at him. His eyes widened as the wound in his heart grew with a savage ease.

Herodes' eyes narrowed and he lunged forward and swiped at the image the claws unsheathed. He tore though the face and then went at it with the other paw deforming it even more. The face swirled and changed but eluded the attacks. With a jerky motion the dragon pulled himself away from the pool and up the tunnel.

The future he would never have watched him go, knowing he would never be back. The pool was still and quiet, never to be visited again.

**A/N**

**Muhhahah!!! Amara is too, a dragon. I assumed that you would know that since Herodes unveiled himeself. Is it true? Did you figure out Amara was a dragon before this point? **

**Here is another chapter, to tell you the truth this was never in the outline. I just did this chapter on a whim. So enjoy my "whimsical" chapter ;)**

**Riddle: What goes up a chimney down, but won't go down a chimney up? **

**Answer to last chapter's: E**

**I own Herodes, Amara and this concept of what happened to the dragons. Eoin Colfer owns...pretty much everything else. **


	22. Depths of the World

_**Depths of the World**_

Herodes arrived at the surface five minutes after the lake "incident." He paced a bit to get his mind off what he had seen and tried to relax. Something about different kinds of trees calmed him down, so he had started memorizing and reciting every kind of tree in America a couple years ago, or was it longer than that? He had no idea. The thinking took some time and took his mind completely off everything else.

Coming to the entrance, he saw the tail of his friend swinging back and forth. He smiled and stepped into the sunlight. The light assaulted his eyes and forced him to pause and adjust. The rusting from above told him she had shifted, the smell of forest was as rich and heavy in the air. There was the scent of dew in the air, it had rained the night before.

He smiled and turned his face up to look at the female dragon and was about to speak when he smelled something. An oaky smell, and one he knew very well: fairy. The smile that was forming on his face fell and shattered to the ground. His eyes finished adjusting and he saw them.

There was Amara sitting, her brown fur shown gently in the sunlight. It was a great contrast to her black mane that streaked down her neck. A tuft always fell on her forehead making her look spunky and rebellious. Her feathered, creamy wings were tucked next to her sides. The dragon was talking with the same elf that he had saved in the underground complex and next to her was the teenager as well. A shuttle was resting on one side of a hill not far away.

She must have sensed his presence because she looked down at him with her chocolate eyes. She said in a playful voice: "Ah! Looks like sleeping beauty decided to show his face. Do you know how long you slept?"

He couldn't help but smile and with a quick jump/flap he was standing next to her. "I don't know, maybe a few hours?"

"Ten hours, I didn't know that dragons could sleep that much! Luckily for you, I was more efficient than that. I sorted the whole Swann stuff out for you, Mister-I-Lost-My-Temper." Amara replied with a teasing tone.

Herodes looked at the fairy and human, dismissing what Amara had said with a flick of his tail, "And these are the two that have been following my every footstep. I must say you are very persistent." He forced the amusement in his voice. He had always been good at acting.

The boy nodded, "Yes, we are. I am Artemis Fowl the Second and this is Captain Holly Short from the Lower Elements Police."

The white dragon replied, "Yes, LEP. I know who they are, they were created the year I was born. Now tell me, why are you here?" he said this bluntly; he didn't know how close Skarn was to making him dinner. Today he didn't really feel like being fried, thank you very much.

Amara frowned, "You really shouldn't be so impolite, Hero." She seemed upset at his outburst, knowing her, she was probably still upset about how her little joke didn't have any effect on him…on the outside, that is.

"No, I think that is called being straight to the point." Artemis answered for the dragon. His raven hair was ruffled and his suit disheveled but he didn't seem to notice. Smiling, Herodes decided he liked this boy.

A snort came from Amara. Artemis continued, "To answer your question, we are here to talk about how suddenly you just appeared. Your kind has been invisible to the earth for over three hundred years."

The fairy Holly chimed in, "And we are here to escort the two of you somewhere where humans won't be able to find you."

Herodes raised an eyebrow; he wasn't going anywhere. "Really?" He said in an incredulous tone. Amara shifted her weight from her front feet to her back feet, staring down at them. A sinking feeling appeared in Hero's stomach.

The Mudman smiled and replied in a pointed tone, "Your friend has already agreed on your behalf. I assumed that she knew you well enough to understand your motives. Am I wrong?"

"Just wait one second while I talk to Amara." Hero gave Amara a glare. Certainly she hadn't been serous. Didn't she realize the risk?

They walked a bit away from the group and stopped behind a boulder. "You did what?" he asked in Draconic. They had lanced the language with enough magic that no one with the gift of tongues would understand it.

Amara settled down on the ground and replied coolly, "Relax, it's just a quick jaunt to haven. We'll be back by the end of the tomorrow."

"Tomorrow could be death to me. I would rather keep moving." Hero answered sharply, he wasn't only thinking of himself.

The brown dragon promptly yawned, "Seriously, we will be safer there for a bit. He would never think to look underground." The look on her face said she didn't see the point of having this conversation.

His tail switched at the comment, she wasn't seeing the big picture. "What if he does look there? How many lives will be on the line? They're fairies! Even though they can populate faster than us that still isn't that fast! We could be risking killing off the last of their kind." He walked over to her looked her in the eyes.

"We won't. We'll be out of there before he even knows we were there." Suddenly her voice because cold and serious, "I don't get something Herodes, What are you afraid of?"

A dozen answers fluttered though his mind. He was afraid of Amara becoming a plaything of Skarn's. He was afraid of what would happen to the world. He was afraid for his own life. He was afraid for everything living creature in the world.

"I'm afraid for the world." He said calmly, though that wasn't how he felt on the inside.

Amara rolled her eyes and snorted in his face, "Do you know how bad a liar you are? As clear as air! Really!" A playful smile crept onto her face.

After snorting at her back he grumbled, "Fine, this is crazy, you're crazy, they're crazy. It's your fault if we get caught."

The brown dragon smiled with an easy victory. They both knew that to her, he was a push over. The male dragon's frown continued to grow, he swished his tail again, annoyed. He turned to leave and quickly transformed into an elf that was the look-alike to Herodes. He stuck his tongue out at the seemingly huge dragon still standing before him.

Soon, they both appeared in elfin form walking toward them, Hero still sulking under the arm of Amara who was…still smiling very sweetly. What Artemis and Holly didn't realize was the carefully hidden serrated teeth that were shining as well behind the disguise.

**A/N**

**Another week going by, more school and life. I'm not getting half the reviews that I used to. Is there anybody out there? I wouldn't mind if you complain or tell me that I'm late or if you even like the story.**

**But I like the little fuss in between Amara and Herodes. Even if they like each other, they still have different viewpoints on things…important things…**

**See you next week…**

**Brightfrost**

**Riddle:**

**Each morning I appear  
To lie at your feet,  
All day I will follow  
No matter how fast you run,  
Yet I nearly perish  
In the midday sun.**

**What Am I?**

**Last Answer: Umbrella**


	23. Truth

_**Truth**_

Amara waited for the question that they both knew was coming. The two dragons, the fairy, and the human were all sitting around the table in the shuttle. They were on their way E1, once there they would be to get shuttled even farther underground.

By the look on the other "elf"'s face, he was dreading explaining the question. They both knew that one question would lead to the question that would eventually challenge his very basic ethics. She knew…because they had done it before, and in the end Herodes had stormed out. The people questioning were his parents, a few short hours before Skarn arrived and the year long slaughter started.

The human was the one to ask. "We need some answers before we can help you. Can you tell us your relationship between yourself and this red dragon?"

Hero gave a needing look to Amara and asked her without words to answer the question for him. She rejected him with just a slight turn of her head. This was his problem, and not hers.

"That is a very long answer, but basically we were…born enemies, or we should be enemies." He replied with a sigh, folding and unfolding his hand on the table.

The real elf, Holly, glanced at the human, "I think we've got that you two are enemies. But why?"

"That's the long and complicated answer." Hero replied with a large sigh, running his hand though his hair and sitting back in the chair.

Again the fairy cut the human to it, looking at a watch saying, "We have time, It'll take us at least an hour to get there, and I honestly don't want to hear Artemis and Foaly get into their geniuses mumbo jumbo." She ended that on a sarcastic note.

After an uneasy second of compilation he replied, "Fine. There is a power struggle going on between myself and Skarn, that's the name of the red dragon that's been burning down towns. A struggle that I really don't want to be part of, yet I am stuck in it."

Amara cut in, "These struggles a traditional but the only reason that you didn't know about it before was for the reason that it usually takes about a week at the most, not hundreds of years. The only reason that you know now is because Herodes here, broke the rules." She leaned over and playfully boxed the glum dragon in the shoulder.

Her playful punch swayed him in his seat, he had no resistance. Amara rolled her eyes, "You should really lighten up Hero, seriously, when you talk about these things it's like you've just heard that your family was killed."

She regretted what she had said the moment the words left her lips. Herodes turned on her and snapped, "Do you really think that I like explaining why there's a dragon out there that wants to rip my neck open and eat my heart? Oh, and thank you for reminding me that Skarn has already killed the rest of my family, besides you. And the only reason for that was I have been careful not to get you two in the same room."

The other elf looked down at her feet and bit her lip, it was best not to say any more. The white dragon turned on the rest of the group and leaned forward, his eyes aflame "This is what's happening right now. Skarn and I were chose to compete against each other. I refused to fight and fled, to the dismay of everybody. Skarn killed my family trying to get me to agree to fight. I still refused. Instead I cast a spell to lock him in a cave underground for the rest of eternity. The spell went haywire. All the dragons as far as I know got stuck in the caves. That's what happened. Now the spell has worn thin enough for us to start to escape. Skarn is racking up as many lives he can until I just give in and fight him. That's what's happening."

The two others blinked in unison as they processed what the white dragon just said. Holly opened and closed her mouth like a fish for a few moments. Artemis studied the aggravated elf with careful eyes.

Even though the human recovered first from the verbal blow, the elf was to first to reply, "Why don't you just fight him?"

Shaking his head he replied, "I don't think that I'm strong enough to go against him and win. The stakes are too high to loose." He shifted in his seat again, calm after the storm.

"What stakes? Why does he want to fight you for?" Artemis asked.

This time both dragons avoided his gaze. Amara took the question for him, "They fight to become ah…is there isn't a word for it in your language. It's more than this but for the moment we'll call it the 'peacemaker'. Who ever becomes peacemaker keeps the peace between the magical and nonmagical creatures. You wouldn't notice if Herodes would become this. But if he handled the power correctly then there would probably be less fighting between the fairies and the humans. After a while you two could possible be able to live in peace with each other. The peacemaker has a lasting influence, you could say."

The human's eyebrows narrowed, "Then why don't you want to fight? If you could create some sort of substantial peace why don't you?"

The white dragon sighed, "Because of what would happen if Skarn won the fight." pausing to take a breath he continued, "If Skarn won the fight he would force the world into a downward spiral of death. Essentially draining this world of its energy and magic. With that amount of strain, the world would probably collapse in itself, destroying everything on it. Skarn would save the dragons that support him and together they would start a new world, a world where he is the supreme ruler. As a peacemaker he doesn't have enough influence on this world to control all the creatures. He might keep a few humans as 'pets' but besides that he'd kill off anything that has enough of a mind that it might eventually challenge him: Elves, Sprites, Centaurs, Dragons, Humans, anything that has enough intelligence."

He paused again, taking a drink from a glass of water, he closed his eyes and Amara knew he was forcing himself, "He would leave them here to perish in a world that's falling into itself…torturing them to the end." Setting down the glass he lifted his head and finished his explanation, "That is the reason that I do not fight."

Amara scooted over and gently put an arm around his stiff shoulder, giving whatever support that she could. Silence reined the shuttle for another minute; Artemis spoke, "Let me get this straight. You don't want to fight Skarn because you're afraid that he will win. Yet you seem tolerable of the fact that he is killing hundreds of lives in your name. Correct?"

"I'm not happy with either. What I want to do is find out what went wrong with the spell and try to fix it."

"Why don't you just gather the dragons and attack Skarn and be done with it?" Holly asked after a second of thinking.

Herodes laughed and drew his fingers across the table, "Ah, I wish it was that easy. Right at this moment I'm technically immortal. You could shoot me with your gun at this exact moment and it wouldn't leave a scratch, even with time. Unfortunately, that goes both ways."

There was another second of quiet and then Holly replied, "Well, that's a problem."

"So why do you wait?" Artemis asked causally, "Why do you wait for something that you cannot escape?"

The dragon shook his elfin head, "I know that, but I'm going to find another way. I will not kill another creature, even if he is trying to kill me."

"What about Swann? Was she not a living creature? Or do you have a thing for killing damsels?" He ventured.

Sharply, Herodes turned on him, pushing his seat back, "That was a mistake and no, damsels or any other human/fairy beings are not that appetizing."

"How can that be a mistake? It's like saying, 'oh that was a mistake to throw myself off a cliff'. It wouldn't have been a mistake by the looks of her wounds." Artemis pressed.

"It was a mistake to let myself get so angry, that was the mistake." He replied, and taking his own advise, sat back down at the table again.

"You have to kill him, Herodes." Amara said from behind him.

Nodding Arty agreed, "You should listen to your friend. You can only put it off by letting others suffer for you."

"What about the world? If we could stop this from happening? Or would you rather risk the world?"

"I think that we can deal with Skarn if need be, if he wins. But I still think that our best option is to restore peace."

Hero's head sank into his hands, the muffled response was, "I don't want to fight."

The human had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, he knew that already. Sighing, he leaned forward on the table and replied frankly, "Think of it this way: You could spend another decade or so hiding and worrying and letting others take on your pain or you could get it over with now and be done with it forever. You would never have to deal with it again. Not even think about it if you didn't want to, no matter the outcome. Skarn would be out of your life. Now do you want to wait another decade or do you want to move out of this stage of your life?"

The dragon looked up at him, his eyes wandering over his, searching for what he meant. There were no lies in what he said, and then he studied the table. Racking it for the right answer, exposing its everything: knot, ruffle and hill. Everybody waited, wondering if Artemis Fowl the Second has made the correct impression.

Quietly, Herodes said, "Yes, I think it's time to do what needs to be done."

**AN**

***drum roll* Tada! Three or four chapter to go, amazingly, the end has been up in the air for weeks now. I can't decide. . I finished the story awhile ago with one ending but now I hate it. **_**Hate it. **_**Icetail (my awesome editor) and I are playing around with ideas, it's nice to have someone who knows what's happening and I can truly talk motives. **

**There was a huge confusion on editing and that is the reason that this chapter is **_**two weeks late!**_** Sorry about that. **

**Also thanks for all the reviews, I dearly appreciate everyone of them. **

**See you in **_**two weeks**___**(Icetail is on vacation)**

**Brightfrost**

**Last chapter's riddle: Shadow**

**Riddle:**

**Name an eight letter word that has 'kst' in the middle.**

**I own Herodes, Swann, Skarn, Amara and the plot. Eoin Colfer owns basically everything else…including Artemis, Holly, Foaly and the shuttle (I want the awesome shuttle).**


	24. Time

**_Time_**

It was done, carefully the white dragon stepped forward out of the hazy wall. It hadn't taken that long to pull up a custom dragon time stop. A light green wall hummed around him, it covered the whole Irish grassland, mystical draconic symbols slowly circling around on the wall. The last thing he needed was to have a bunch of screaming Mudmen wielding pitchforks breaking up the fight and taking pictures.

Closing his eyes, he realized that Skarn was veering even closer. Herodes turned and flew back to warn the others. He was honestly scared about the battle coming; his heart was beating hard in his chest. Whoever said that dragons couldn't be scared didn't know one. The sound in his ears a reminder of what was yet to come; another dragon was on his way to kill him, the whole time that he would be trying to do the same.

It sent shivers though his spine, it had to be done though. Logically, he turned his mind away from those dark thoughts. Instead he focused on his handiwork; by Mudman standers he had encompassed a square mile on the field, more than enough for the battle. He had also cast an invisible spell around the specters of the battle. Just in case something went wrong and Skarn started targeting the innocents. They didn't know it yet, not until everything was in motion that he would he solidify that wall.

There they were, he glided closer to them. Artemis and Holly were examining the time stop and Amara was still inside. She hadn't said why she had gone inside but he had reason to guess that it wouldn't be a good time to ask.

Landing, he trotted over trying to ignore his heart he asked, "What do you think of my handiwork?" His tail twitched, as he tried not to watch for the other dragon.

"It's amazing, it would take our whole warlock society hours to make something like this, yet for you it take about a minute. How do you do it?" Holly replied taking out a camera and snapping some pictures.

He settled on the ground, curling his tail with pride. Winking he said mysteriously, "_Magic_."

The elf walked forward and started to bring her hand forward to touch the wall, Hero jumped, "Don't"

The captain paused and looking up at him ask, "Why? You did it a few minutes ago. I saw you half in half out. I thought applied to all creatures."

"No, it doesn't. If you stuck your hand out it would be promptly chopped off by the pressure of the time outside. We are in a different time zone here. I can do it because dragons are made of tougher stuff then there is the fact that I cast to spell don't hurt either."

Holly nodded as she took in what he had said, "But how will Skarn be able to get in?"

The mention of the name sent ice into his bones, refusing to show it, he replied calmly as possible, "He will be able to sense the spell and will essentially rip it open. He can do that. Once that happens then he'll crawl through the hole. I've set it up so it will close again afterwards." A slight waver in his voice was the only sign of what was going through his head.

"So you're controlling the spell?" the elf asked sharpy, pausing from random pictures and videos. Herodes knew what she was really asking, '_if you die will we all get destroyed by the collapsing of the timestop?'_

The white dragon shook his head, "No, I'm no longer controlling it. I have set it up as if I die then it will shut down at a rate that you can withstand. Simply dropping you back in the true time, probably at midnight or close to morning." He smiled sweetly, "Of course I'll never know."

The captain's gaze dropped. She didn't mean it. He rose to his feet and was about to tell her it was fine when _he _arrived, the area above the shuttled ripped open. The red dragon dove forward straight for the white.

Herodes instinctively dropped down to his knees and drew in his wings. An overshot from Skarn saved his head. Landing, the other dragon scrambled around tearing up the grass as he went. His mouth open in a primitive scream of unalternated hate.

Herodes suddenly realized how sick he was of seeing that face. Without a second thought he jumped in the face of Skarn and replied with his own roar. He felt the his fans rising along his back. His tail whipped behind him.

Skarn drew back in surprise, and snarled to him, "So finally the pitiful dragon has decided to face death."

"Yes, I have come to see you face death's wrath." He snapped back.

Snaring again, the red creature leapt again. Herodes crouched to avoid the attack when a form flew over him and crashed into the dragon. Amara growled as they collided with the ground. Quickly as she attacked she danced backwards out of range of the whirl of claws.

"I couldn't just let you go to battle without my good bye, now could I?" Her brown eyes flashed, and his body suddenly felt warm at the touch. He would live to be by the female dragon or he would try his hardest.

"Awww…how sweet. Amara and Herodes. Love till the very end. How sad that won't last very long." Skarn said in a mocking tone in the background.

The white dragon ignored him and softly touched his own nose to hers and quietly backed off. He looked around the field. The gentle rolling hills, the soft grass, this is were some 500 years ago he had stood, looking straight into Skarn's green eyes before he fled. This is where for the past thousands of years, the battles for the planet called Earth took place.

It was his turn.

**AN:**

**Not too much to say, last chapter before the fight, then two after that. Then end is nearing for The 9th Race sadly. **

**Thanks for reading,**

**Brightfrost**

**Last Riddle:**

**Inkstand**

**This chapter's:**

**You can hold it without using your arms or hands. What is it?**


End file.
